Lakers' Brandon Ingram expected to make full recovery, return next season
Brandon Ingram is expected to make a full recovery and be ready for the 2019-20 season.
The Lakers’ lost season with LeBron James keeps getting worse, as the team has gone 1-7 over its last eight games, but fans received some fantastic news on Saturday afternoon. The Lakers were forced to shut down young stars Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball for the rest of the season last week, but the team confirmed Saturday that Ingram is expected to make a full recovery from a scary health issue.
The Lakers’ medical staff discovered a Deep Venous Thrombosis in Ingram’s right shoulder earlier this month, and the diagnosis forced the team to rule him out of the rest of the season. The Athletic’s Sham Charania reported that Ingram had a blood clot removed from his arm this week, and the Lakers announced that he underwent successful thoracic outlet decompression surgery on Saturday.
Many fans were worried that Ingram’s DVT could potentially threaten his career, but Ingram’s camp is confident that this shouldn’t be a recurring issue. Ingram’s agent told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that Ingram’s condition was caused by a structural issue with his body, which was able to be fixed during the surgical procedure. As such, Ingram shouldn’t have issues with blood clots in the future.
Via ESPN:
“It’s a night and day difference between a hematological issue, or a blood issue however you want to put it, and a structural issue. This was not related to his blood producing something that would cause blood clots. This was purely structural.”