Dennis Schröder says his foot is ‘almost back to normal’ following infection

The Los Angeles Lakers haven’t had the best luck when it’s come to injuries this season and nothing is more indicative of that than Dennis Schröder’s latest injury. Last week, Schröder suffered a foot injury that got infected seemingly overnight.

While Schröder didn’t miss any games as a result of the infection, he dealt with serious discomfort both on and off the court, as he detailed during his postgame media availability on Saturday.

“The last two or three days have been pretty bad, but my wife took care of me,” Schröder said. “She said ‘you need to play,’ and I don’t like to miss games, so I fought through it, tried to get out there with my guys. It’s a cut inside the toe that got infected.”

Schröder isn’t 100% just yet, but he said he feels a lot better than he did a few days ago.

“It’s night and day,” Schröder said. “Now I’m almost back to normal. I’ve got a couple other issues but that was the main one, so I’m glad that went away.”

Those “other issues” include a hip and a knee injury, neither of which Schröder has missed games as a result of. That toughness may be a characteristic of the Lakers organization as a whole, but Schröder doesn’t want anyone to think he’s playing through injury to prove something to the team.

“No way,” Schröder said. “I’ve been playing like that my whole career that. I’m like that. I’m built like that. It don’t matter what situation I’m in, I’m going to do the same thing. It’s not because I changed organizations.

“I think that people know what I’m about, and that’s just trying to win games, trying to be out there, and trying to help my teammates ... I don’t try to miss any games, even if I tweak my ankle or whatever it is. I just try to be out there and be competitive.”

As admirable as Schröder’s willingness to put his body on the line is, the hope is that he nor his teammates will have to play through injury when the postseason starts next month. Then again, if Schröder can play like he did on Saturday with ailments, maybe the Lakers will be okay.

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