Joel Embiid ruled out against Bulls as Philadelphia 76ers consult with doctors about knee injury
Joel Embiid has been ruled out for Monday night's game against the Chicago Bulls as he and the Sixers consult with doctors after he completed new imaging on his injured left knee. ESPN was the first to report the news.
Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said the tests on Embiid's left knee will continue on Monday and Tuesday. So is this the last we've seen of the big fella this season? Nurse said the team isn't at the point of ruling him out for the season.
"We are playing and testing and trying to figure it out and go from there," Nurse said.
Embiid and the Sixers are weighing all options, including surgery, as he continues to deal with an injured left knee that has hampered his play on the court and kept him sidelined for most of the season.
Over the weekend, Embiid sat the entire fourth quarter in Philadelphia's loss against the Brooklyn Nets after he was slow to get up in the third quarter, but Nurse said that was a lineup decision — not because of an injury.
Embiid has been getting injections in his left knee regularly along with other treatments, but it hasn't improved. The 2022-23 NBA MVP and two-time scoring champ has admitted recently that he's been struggling with the knee injury and has hinted at having surgery to "fix the problem."
Embiid has only played in 19 of the Sixers' 56 games due to his left knee injury, a foot sprain, a sinus fracture and a three-game suspension he served at the beginning of the 2024-25 season for shoving Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes.
Embiid hasn't been himself all year as he's continued to battle through the injuries. His 23.8 points per game are his lowest average since the 2019-20 season. He's also been shooting an uncharacteristic 44.4% from the field, which is the first time he's shot below 50% since the 2021-22 season.
Embiid and the Sixers had championship aspirations after an offseason that landed them nine-time All-Star Paul George, but the signing hasn't work out thus far.
Last season, Embiid also missed a significant number of games after he tore the meniscus in his left knee. He played 39 regular season games, had surgery on his left knee in February, and then returned in time for Philadelphia's loss in the first round of the playoffs against the New York Knicks.
At the beginning of the season, the Sixers wanted Embiid to be healthy for the postseason, which is something that he's struggled with his entire career. Embiid told ESPN he would probably never play in back-to-back games for the rest of his career. But the plan to get them there obviously hasn't come to fruition
"It is disappointing, it certainly has been disappointing, there's no question about it," Nurse said. "I don't think that anybody envisioned it going like this. So yeah, it is. It's disappointing on a lot of levels, man. He wants to play. We want him to play. Our best version of our team is with him playing, getting to where we want it to go and it hasn't worked out like that yet."
