Explained: Cole Swider’s navicular foot injury and recovery timeline

Los Angeles Lakers rookie forward — and potential sharpshooter, they sure could use one — Cole Swider missed the tail end of preseason with “foot soreness” and was eventually seen wearing a boot. A few days later, the team officially announced that Swider has been diagnosed with a stress reaction of the navicular bone.

What does that mean? I explain in more detail in the following video along with explaining his return timeline and the keys to his return to action.

It’s certainly an injury you have to be patient with for the multiple reasons discussed and even more important in Swider’s case because he’s a rookie, which means he’s still acclimating to the physical and mental rigors of professional basketball.

That jump in intensity could also be a reason for the injury itself, along with the grueling non-stop schedule for fringe draft prospects who enter the draft and have to go through pre-combine to combine to summer league without much of a rest. That load is a key contributor to the proverbial “rookie wall”, take Austin Reaves, for example.

We should get additional information on Swider as we get closer to his re-evaluation date and I’ll keep you updated as we learn more.

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 background to cater to elite athletes. 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.