Randolph tears his cruciate ligament and will be out for at least eight months

Anthony Randolph suffered a complete rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on Monday in the first game of the ACB final, as reported by Real Madrid on Tuesday. The first estimates calculate that the player will be out of the courts between eight and ten months. The club has confirmed that the 32-year-old Slovenian player will undergo surgery in the coming days.

This injury happened in a fortuitous play during the second quarter of the first match of the ACB finals between Barcelona and Real Madrid. In the 4.44 minute, the power forward tried to close off Nikola Mirotic’s advance when he slipped on the parquet and twisted his knee. The player instantly noticed that something was wrong and his gestures of pain reflected that it could be something serious. He needed the assistance of two teammates to leave the field, applauded by the Palau public. Chus Mateo, who officiated that day as coach of Real Madrid, pointed out at the break that first impressions suggested that it could be something serious. “It looks ugly. This is the sad thing about sport. It hurts me because he is a splendid guy, ”said the coach of the white team.

Confirmed the diagnosis, Randolph says goodbye to practically the entire next season. A situation that is not new for the center, who at the end of 2020 suffered a complete rupture of the Achilles tendon that kept him off the court for almost a year. In December of last year he returned to the dynamics of the team and this season he had established himself as one of the important players in Real Madrid’s short rotation, now even smaller.

Randolph joins Carlos Alocén, who suffers from the same injury and has not been able to participate just this season, and Williams-Goss, who suffered a peroneal tendon injury, in the infirmary. Madrid has the vacant base position due to the loss of all the candidates from the squad (Carlos Alocén, Sergio Llull, Alberto Abalde and Thomas Heurtel) and now loses one of its most important resources from the bench. This Wednesday the second match of the ACB League final will be played, also at the Palau, with the Whites having fewer and fewer wickets, but for the moment, ahead in the tie.

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