Bell could be out for at least 3 games
Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
May. 26, 2006 12:00 AM
DALLAS - Officially, Suns guard Raja Bell is doubtful for tonight's Game 2 of the Western Conference finals after partially tearing his left calf muscle in Game 1 on Wednesday.
Realistically, the feeling within the Suns is that Bell likely is out until at least Game 5 and perhaps the series. However, Bell would not rule out a quick comeback.
"I'm not saving anything so as soon as I feel I can help, I'll be ready to go, but I don't know when that will be," he said. "I don't know the word 'can't.' I don't know the word 'never.' "
Suns head athletic trainer Aaron Nelson said the first 24 to 48 hours after a calf strain are the worst, but Bell was no more sore Thursday morning than he was Wednesday night. He said the minimal amount of swelling was also a good sign.
"Strains like that, you have to be a lot more careful with because you don't want to reinjure it, aggravate it and make it worse," Nelson said. "He's got some small tearing. There's also definitely some microtrauma, which are small tears. The good thing was it didn't swell a lot, meaning if there was a large tear, it would have blown up worse."
Bell is being treated with manual therapy and a mix of modality treatments - electrical stimulation, ice and laser.
Dr. Russell Chick, a Phoenix orthopedist and former Cardinals orthopedic doctor who served the team for 17 1/2 years, said Bell's injury may take awhile to heal.
"It's not a serious injury, but it's a time injury," Chick said Thursday.
He stressed that the time missed depends heavily upon the severity of the tear, and that he had no knowledge of Bell's injury but was talking generally. He dealt with several similar injuries when he was with the Cardinals.
Offensive linemen could come back sooner. For receivers who had to cut, pivot and sprint, the time was much longer, sometimes two, three or four weeks.
"It's a much more disabling injury in a basketball player than in an offensive lineman," he said. "If it's not a real severe tear and there is not a lot of swelling, they can come back and play pretty quickly. There is going to be some time involved."
Shooting up with painkillers and playing is really not much of an option, Chick said.
"You can shoot it up, but it doesn't work so well," he said. "The muscle is so big and you have to be concerned about getting a clot. It's a difficult area to inject and then go out and play on.
"If this was the Super Bowl, if you had one shot and then could take six months off, then maybe you could go do it."
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