After much speculation and lack of a definite time for his potential return, All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving may be returning from injury earlier than expected.
According to Yahoo! Sports, the Cavs' injured backcourt of Irving and Iman Shumpert will be traveling with the team in the next few days and could make their return to the court on this road trip.
As reported by ESPN, Irving fractured his kneecap in the first game of last season's NBA finals against the Golden State Warriors. As sportingnews.com initially reported, Irving's recovery was allegedly pushed back from a September comeback to January 2016.
According to the star guard's interview on cleveland.com, the injury was purely accidental and something no one could have expected. "It was just freak play. I felt good throughout the whole entire game. It wasn't about the minutes or anything like that that everyone wants to kind of speculate about our training staff. It was me who decided to go out and play, put my body on the line," Irving said.
Shumpert on the other hand suffered an injury on his wrist during the team's pre-season.
As per the team's official press release, Shumpert "recently suffered a ruptured Extensor Carpi Ulnaris sheath in his right wrist. The extent of the injury was confirmed by MRI at Cleveland Clinic Sports Health yesterday by Dr. Thomas Graham and Dr. Richard Parker."
Head coach David Blatt was optimistic about their return but stated the need for them to be eased back into the game. ''There's a chance that one of the two or both will play on the trip, but there's also a chance they don't,'' Blatt said. ''We'll see how they're feeling.''
''We're in December,'' Blatt added. ''Not a normal situation. Both of them are coming back from pretty serious injuries, but they are progressing. I'm not going to throw them out there for 48 minutes. We'll have to see how they're feeling and get them conditioned to game speed.''
