Malik Monk’s ‘groin strain’ injury, explained

Los Angeles Lakers guard Malik Monk has been the standout thus far during the team’s otherwise tumultuous preseason (and relax, it’s preseason for a team only returning three players from last year’s roster) and was potentially on his way to challenging for the starting spot at shooting guard.

However, prior to last night’s game vs the Phoenix Suns, head coach Frank Vogel announced that Monk had picked up a “groin strain,” and would miss at least the next week, but that the team was still hoping he’d be ready for their season-opener on Oct. 19.

In the following video, I explained what this injury means, the typical return timeline for it, and some key things to understand about the injury:

Although any injury obviously isn’t ideal, Monk missing preseason games isn’t the worst thing in the world, and is obviously better than missing regular season ones. The Lakers will just have to hope that he can return after his time on the bench with the same dynamic offensive ability he showed through their first three preseason games.

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 in which he further combines his movement expertise and fitness training. 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 4 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.