Anthony Davis’ MCL sprain and possible return timeline, explained

Los Angeles Lakers big man Anthony Davis suffered an MCL sprain in his left knee during last night’s game vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves when Timberwolves wing Jalen McDaniels flopped and collided with Davis’ leg.

Davis was immediately in obvious pain, grabbing at the left knee, and although he was able to walk off, he fell to the ground in the tunnel leading to the visitors locker room.

Early reports based on manual assessment were that Davis’ overall knee stability was intact, but more information was needed, with an MRI incoming to clear up the overall nature and extent of the injury. Today, we learned that extent: The team announced that Davis had an MCL sprain and would be reevaluated in four weeks.

In the following video, I went into a little more detail on the injury, including the potential return timeline, why the news was actually good news based on how Davis’ knee collapsed and my initial fears, and one confounding variable to watch moving forward:

As Davis rehabilitates his ailing knee, the Lakers face yet another setback, but no one will feel sorry for them. As the team returns from COVID protocols, we are going to see just how resilient this group is, and if they can steady the boat in the short-term. The good news in the Western Conference is that, unlike years past, there’s a lot of mediocre teams, so they have some margin of error to play with.

I’ll keep you updated as we learn more information on Davis and his return to play.

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.