Explaining Anthony Davis’ abdominal strain injury and a potential return timeline
Let’s take a closer look at Anthony Davis’ abdominal strain injury through a medical lens and see how long the Lakers may be without their star big man.
Los Angeles Lakers’ big Anthony Davis left the team’s most recent game against the Philadelphia 76ers in the first quarter and was eventually ruled out for the game. The team gave an update stating that he suffered an abdominal strain and would be re-evaluated in one week.
Davis has been relatively injury-free this season — and, really, over the last two-and-a-half seasons, which makes the “street clothes” moniker look even sillier — and this could be his first extended absence of the season. Let's take a closer look at the injury.
First things first, what exactly is an abdominal strain?
That term refers to an injury to a muscle in the abdominal group. A “strain” is medically a tear and graded on a spectrum - the lowest is a Grade 0 (no overt injury), while Grade 1 is typically micro-tears in the muscle and scales up to a Grade 4, which is a complete rupture of the muscle.
Further, the abdominals consist of three major muscles. Here’s what they look like anatomically, from deeper to more superficial.
In Davis’ case, we don’t have any specifics on what muscle was injured and we likely never will. He was grabbing at his lower stomach or pelvic area while in the tunnel walking off, but if you look closely at the diagrams above, you can see that each of the abdominal muscles inserts into that region so that gesture from Davis also doesn’t give us that much information.
Here’s what we do know.
He had an MRI that showed an injury, and he will be reevaluated in one week. This likely means he has a Grade 1 injury, which, for abdominal strains, typically has a 7-10 day return timeline; mind you, there can be variance depending on the specific area injured and how he responds to rehab.
This can be a tricky injury due to the demands placed on that area. Any body movement, especially under load, stresses the abdominals. Davis is constantly being leaned on or leaning on players, putting himself into awkward angles due to his rare combination of size, athleticism and motor while also being asked to do a lot on both ends.
That puts a major demand on his body, including his abdominals. It’s not surprising that he picked up this injury while playing his third game in four nights and coming off a high-usage game against the Charlotte Hornets the night before.
For now, the medical staff will focus on dampening any pain or discomfort Davis is experiencing and then reintroducing mobility and strength work as tolerated. No muscular injury is ever ideal, but the good news is that Davis has done an excellent job of managing his injuries recently. Further, his teammate LeBron James wasn’t overly concerned about it either,, stating that Davis would be “just fine.”
In the meantime, the Lakers will have to hold down the fort until AD is back with Jaxson Hayes and Christian Koloko likely getting the lion’s share of those minutes unless GM Rob Pelinka is able to strike a deal for another big.
As always, I will keep you updated as we learn more.
Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, and runs his own in-person and online sports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA and partners with Quantum Performance in which he further combines his movement expertise and fitness training background to rehab & train elite athletes. He also works at a hospital — giving him experience with patients in the immediate healthcare setting and neurological patients (post stroke, post brain injury) — and has been practicing for over 5 years.
Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC), has a background in youth basketball coaching and analyzes the Lakers from a medical and skills perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and on his own YouTube Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @3cbPerformance.