Precautionary Measures: Andrew Bynum to sit out 3 weeks

The Sixers announced today that newly acquired center Andrew Bynum will sit out the next 3 weeks (that's 21 days, for those of you counting at home) as a precautionary measure while he continues to get healthy. The source of the problem seems to be a bone bruise that resulted from Bynum's offseason non-invasive Orthokine/Regenokine procedure. UPDATE [10/2/2012 4:00 AM EST] - According to the Sixers, the way I interpreted the bone bruise information was incorrect. Here's what they had to say:

Please note that the bone bruise was not caused or in any way related to the treatment Andrew received in Germany, nor was that indicated in the status update released by the team. The two are unrelated.

And here's the Sixers official release:

Bynum was examined by Dr. Jack McPhilemy of Main Line Health and was diagnosed with a bone bruise of the medial femoral chondyle of his right knee. During the aforementioned time frame, Bynum will continue participate in low impact conditioning drills.

Liberty Ballers' own Derek Bodner, reporting live from Sixers Media Day today, noted that the decision to hold Bynum out was made only recently:

Bynum says a couple of days ago something felt uncomfortable, and that's when they told him to back off his workouts.

— Derek Bodner (@derekbodner) October 1, 2012

It's no secret by now that Bynum has had a history of knee injuries (he previously had surgery on his left knee in 2008, and then another surgery on his right knee in 2010), so it makes sense for the Sixers to give him the preseason off in order to get healthy by the time the regular season starts on October 31st. Having Bynum play in the preseason would be nice since it would allow him some time to get adjusted to playing with his new teammates, but it's obviously just not worth the risk of further injury.

However, if the injury timeline holds true there's a possibility that Bynum could appear in the Sixers final preseason game against the New York Knicks on October 22nd (21 days from now).

Get well soon, Andy B. I look forward to seeing you in your Sixers jersey more often soon. You look damn good in it.

Your first look at Andrew Bynum in a #Sixers uniform! twitter.com/Sixers/status/…

— Philadelphia 76ers (@Sixers) October 1, 2012