A blessing in disguise for Franz Wagner: The German basketball star got off lightly after his moment of shock.
As the Orlando Magic announced on Monday, the world and European champion only suffered a severe sprain of his left ankle in the 100:106 defeat at the New York Knicks on Sunday.
No exact information was given about the duration of the outage, but according to “ESPN”, Wagner only had to take a break for “between two to four weeks”.
4:43 minutes before the end of the first quarter, Wagner was fouled by his German opponent Ariel Hukporti while trying to catch a high pass and landed extremely badly on the ground. With a pained face, he held his knee and writhed on the court; it was feared that he would tear his cruciate ligament. The MRI scan on Monday gave the all-clear.
This means that Wagner will probably not have to miss his “home game” on January 15th, when Orlando meets the Memphis Grizzlies in Berlin.
Last season, Wagner was out for weeks with an abdominal muscle injury. His brother and teammate Moritz suffered a torn cruciate ligament a year ago and subsequently missed the European Championships. Now the 28-year-old is pushing for his comeback.
Franz Wagner has performed well so far in the first year of his new $224 million contract. Especially in the absence of co-star Paolo Banchero, who was recently injured, he carried the offensive, so that Orlando moved back into the playoff ranks after a weak start to the season.
Mosley’s prayers are answered
Immediately after Wagner’s injury, Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley feared the worst.
“You never want to see someone go down, but it hurt my heart to see him fall to the ground,” Mosley admitted. “Now I just pray that everything will be okay for him, but we just don’t want that to happen to him – especially him, who always does everything right when he’s on the pitch.”
His prayers were apparently answered; the second serious knee injury in the Wagner family did not follow.