HOUSTON (Reuters) - Houston Rockets center Yao Ming will miss the rest of the season because of a stress fracture in his left ankle, the NBA team's physician said on Friday.
An MRI scan on Thursday revealed a break in the medial malleolus, on the inside part of Yao's ankle, but the 30-year-old Chinese has not yet decided on how he wants to proceed.
According to Rockets' team physician Walter Lowe, surgery is the "usual course" to follow for this type of injury with rehabilitation likely to take between seven and 10 months.
"This is a season-ending injury," Lowe said during a news conference. "The issue right now is that it needs to be treated appropriately and then let it heal."
The seven-foot, six-inch (2.3-metres) Yao injured his ankle during the first quarter of Houston's 98-91 loss to the Washington Wizards on November 10 and has not played since.
Lowe believes the stress fracture developed during Yao's rehabilitation over the last month.
"This was an ankle sprain with bone bruising it sounds like," Lowe said. "He had an MRI done up in Indianapolis, was brought back here and then really not progressing from a rehab standpoint which (led to) the new studies done yesterday that revealed a stress fracture."
Yao missed all of last season after suffering a fractured bone in his left foot and having an operation on the injury.
The seven-times All Star has averaged 10.2 points and 5.4 rebounds in five games during this campaign with Houston limiting his minutes in an attempt to prevent injury. (Writing by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
