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A day after Steve Nash disclosed that Ben Simmons was administered an epidural — a steroid injection to ease pain in his lower back — the newest Nets star is currently doing nothing on the court.
The Nets head coach didn’t provide an update on how Simmons is feeling after the epidural injection he received in Brooklyn earlier this week when the team was in Orlando. Nash, who seems to be in the dark about the status of Simmons, said the 25-year-old underwent an MRI a couple of weeks ago that revealed a strain. He called it “old news” and when he was asked a follow-up whether the scan came back clean, he answered, “what does clean mean?”
Outside of the MRI, there wasn’t much clarity from the Nets head coach on Simmons. When he was asked about any benchmarks for Simmons to hit before returning to the court, Nash directed the questions to the medical staff
“That’s really a question for the medical staff,” Nash said. “All the ins and outs of his back injury, I couldn’t speak on it.”
The Nets head coach was also asked if the team saw any signs of his lower back injury after Simmons came to Brooklyn after the blockbuster February 10th trade deadline transaction. Nash said he couldn’t remember.
“I can’t remember now what happened right after the deal. We were on the road, I think. Yeah, I can’t even remember where he was at when he got here,” Nash said.
The Nets head coach was then asked a follow-up on if the team saw early signs of the lower back injury during his first days as a Net. Nash answered with the same response.
“I can’t remember what state. What was that? About a month ago? I can’t remember if he was having issues or flare-ups,” Nash said. “He hasn’t practiced yet for us.”
The Nets head coach did explain how Simmons did “some individual workouts” before having a flare-up with his lower back. Since the flare-up, the 25-year-old hasn’t been on the court doing any individual on-court workouts.
“He’s done some individual workouts, and then he had the flare-up. That’s a step he hasn’t got back to yet; individual on-court workouts,” Nash said.
In the meantime, Brooklyn (36-34) sits as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference standings. The team is holding only a 1.0 game lead over the ninth-seeded Charlotte Hornets and trails the seventh-seeded Toronto Raptors by 3.5 games.
“I think we just have to focus on whose available right now,” Nash stated. “Whether Ben’s available, we’ll be very excited. We’ll get to work on how to find cohesion but right now we just got to focus on the games in front of us and who is available and manage the current squad.”
- Steve Nash says Ben Simmons’ MRI revealed back injury ‘weeks ago,’ offers no clarity on return timeline - Kristian Winfield - New York Daily News
- Nets coach Steve Nash says Ben Simmons had MRI on his back ‘weeks ago’ - Laura Albanese - Newsday
- Nets have no answers regarding Ben Simmons’ status - Mark W. Sanchez - New York Post
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