Milwaukee Bucks star Khris Middleton has missed 16 consecutive games due to a lingering ankle injury. The three-time All-Star suffered the knock on February 6 after landing awkwardly on Phoenix Suns superstar Kevin Durant’s foot following a three-point attempt.
The good news for Bucks fans is that Middleton’s streak is about to end. This is after the 32-year-old declared himself available for Sunday’s contest against, incidentally, the Suns.
Milwaukee Bucks Star Khris Middleton Will Play on Sunday
Middleton made his announcement after Saturday’s practice. This has been a long time coming and finally, the 6-foot-7 swingman will finally return to action to help the Bucks.
“I can play,” Middleton said after Saturday’s practice, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “That’s what it is right now. Everybody’s going through something at this point. I mean, so I’m good enough to play. Ankle sprains, they linger for a little bit of time, but my ankle is good enough to play on right now without causing severe pain or anything like that. So, I’m good.
‘… I mean, (I) just feel good enough to play at this point. I’ve been frustrated sitting out for so long, but when you have an ankle sprain as bad as I did, it just takes time. Sometimes, it takes a little bit longer than others, but I’m happy to be back.”
Middleton has been ramping up his activity of late, but his situation has become a bit frustrating considering how the Bucks have not been able to provide a firm target date for his return. Nevertheless, all that has been thrown out the window now that he’s finally set to rejoin his teammates on the basketball court.
Middleton also spoke about his long road to recovery and why he had to take such a significant amount of time before returning to action:
“With injuries a lot and coming back, you’re able to control a lot of your movements and rehab, but once you get into games, especially on the defensive side, it becomes more of a reactive thing,” Middleton said. “And I wasn’t able to react in the way I wanted to off the movement — guarding pick-and-rolls, guarding guys off the dribble — without the comfort I needed to go out there and play. So that was the last little bit of hurdle that I was trying to cross.”
We expect the Bucks to be very cautious in bringing Middleton back into the mix. He should be on some sort of minutes limit in his first few games back as the veteran looks to get back up to full speed.
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