Here’s what we know for sure.
On June 13th, the Philadelphia 76ers released a statement that Embiid’s foot wasn’t healing as much as had been anticipated. On July 11th, the 76ers released a statement that Embiid would undergo season-ending surgery.
However, Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News published an article stating that two sources have told the Daily News that Embiid had re-broken the navicular bone.
He is scheduled for surgery in the near future. Â It will be the same bone-graft surgery that Cleveland Cavaliers bigman Zydrunas Ilgauskas went through. Â It’s worth noting that the operation was a major success for Big-Z.
In rebuttal, 76ers C.E.O. Scott O’Neal had this to say about the situation via his twitter (@ScottONeil):
We prev stated fracture site didn’t fully heal & decision made 4 Jo 2 undergo season-ending bone graft procedure.
long-term health is top priority always will b releases use proper medical terms which might not be clear enuf
might b guilty of spending more time n focus on Jo n right decision than explaining med terms but truth in releases
Here’s Joel walking around with John Wall last night. Â If the bone is actually broken again, it’s hard to believe he would be allowed to be walking around without a boot.
My guess is Cooney’s source simply misunderstood the information he was given and that the initial statement the 76ers released was true.  Healing had stopped.  Joel is pain free and it’s reasonable to assume he’s frustrated about a second operation.  However, the team has placed his long-term health above all else and if he has to miss a second season, then so be it.
TMZ – Joel Embiid and John Wall
