Tyrese Maxey expected to be sidelined 3-4 weeks with left foot fracture

The Sixers left us hanging for as long as they possibly could before ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski gave us the big update Saturday afternoon: “Tyrese Maxey is expected to miss 3-4 weeks with a left foot injury.”

He’d follow it up with word of a small fracture:

According to the Sixers, Maxey is indeed dealing with a small fracture in his left foot and will be reevaluated in two weeks, per our Paul Hudrick. That team update actually sounds a bit less aggressive than Woj’s version to me.

But the PhillyVoice said a source confirmed the 3-4 week expected timeline.

Upon first glance the injury really didn’t look too bad. Many of us figured the third-year star rolled his ankle, when Jevon Carter got up into his landing zone on a foul before halftime in the Sixers big win over the Bucks. But Maxey reacted by limping, and cursing, and headed off right to the locker room. So there was some speculation that something much worse might have happened.

On the ESPN Broadcast, Cassidy Hubbarth mentioned Maxey was already headed for an MRI and would be ruled out for the game with a left foot (not ankle) issue. That made me very nervous. Then Woj weighed in to let us know the MRI wasn’t until Saturday. Are we just cursed with foot injuries, some of us reasonably wondered.

So we had to wait between halftime Friday night until nearly 24 hours later to finally learn the extent of it. James Harden, you know was ruled out for about a month with a sprained foot and the update there is that he’s actually on track to meet that expectation. But now they’ll have to play without either star guard for some time.

All in all, I’m taking this as decent news, since I was trying to prepare myself for some worse scenarios, like him missing the season. I might have just packed it in and became a water polo fan if that had been the case.

Maxey was apparently in good spirits after the game, but we knew not to read into that too much.

It’s a good thing the team was more cautious with Tyrese than they were with Harden. Harden wound up logging over 30 minutes or so on his severely sprained foot, before his MRI the next day. Maxey was immediately ruled out for the evening after shooting his free throws.

Whether or not it’s prudent for Maxey to even consider returning to the lineup in just the three to four weeks Woj mentions, having dealt with a fracture in his foot, however small, is a question for another day.

Now Joel Embiid will look to carry the load himself. Tobias Harris is dealing with a hip, Harden and Maxey will miss extended time, Furkan Korkmaz has a bothersome knee, and so the Sixers will try to win by hook or by crook.

This really stinks and it may cost him his first All-Star appearance. But things could have been a lot worse, so some pretty good news, all things considered. We’ll wish Maxey a speedy and complete recovery. Don’t rush it Mr. 22-year-old superstar.