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Hardaway to Undergo Thumb Surgery


Posted: Jan. 10, 2003

http://www.nba.com/suns/news/hardaway_030110.html

Hardaway
Phoenix Suns guard Anfernee Hardaway will undergo thumb surgery on Saturday, Jan. 11, to repair the radial collateral ligament in his right thumb.

“Penny sprained it and tried to play through it. The tissue stretched and basically he runs the chance of having a long-term detriment,” Suns team physician Dr. Thomas Carter said. “It’s our recommendation because of how unstable the thumb is to have it repaired now before it gets so severe that he ends up having arthritis or career-threatening injuries.”

The surgery will be performed at Good Samaritan Hospital by Dr. Robert Wilson, a member of the Suns medical team who specializes in hand injuries.

Normal recovery time for this type of injury is six to eight weeks.

“Back in November in the Sacramento game I hit it pretty good on my thumb. There was pain right away,” Hardaway said. ”I kept reinjuring it by playing. It went on for about four weeks really bad but it calmed down. Then I hit it again and reinjured it. I just thought it was a jammed thumb.

“(By playing) I’m only going to make it worse. It’s going to make the tissue work and make it harder on the doctors to do surgery. The more it gets hit, the more I play the worse it gets. The doctors told me there is no reason to wait or else it’s going to be worse at the end of the season.

“The one good thing is that it’s not my knee. We’re going so well right now and it’s been this way with my thumb for seven weeks. They told me if I kept going it might be career-threatening and I just thought it was a jammed thumb. It never really got well.”

Phoenix (22-14) hosts Memphis tonight and then faces Utah at America West Arena on Sunday, Jan. 12, at 6 p.m.