Rudy Gay is back on the injury report.
The Sacramento Kings forward suffered a concussion late in the third quarter of Monday’s contest versus the Memphis Grizzlies. Marc Gasol inadvertently struck him in the face when both tried to catch a pass from Derrick Williams. After getting up off the floor, Gay was escorted to the locker room for evaluation. He did not return.
With a concussion diagnosis, Gay will need to complete the NBA’s return to participation protocol. Via NBA.com:
The return to participation protocol involves several steps of increasing exertion — from a stationary bike, to jogging, to agility work, to non-contact team drills.
With each step, a player must be symptom free to move to the next step. If a player is not symptom free after a step, he stops until he is symptom free and begins again at the previous step of the protocol (i.e., the last step he passed without any symptoms).
While the final return to participation decision is to be made by the player’s team physician, the team physician must discuss the return to participation process and decision with Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, the Director of the NBA’s Concussion Program, prior to the player being cleared for full participation in NBA Basketball.
It’s important to note that there is no timeframe to complete the protocol. Each injury and player is different and recovery time can vary in each case.
Gay is ruled out for Wednesday’s match against the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center. Omri Casspi (11 starts this season) or Derrick Williams (five starts) will likely replace him in the starting lineup. The 28-year-old has played 61 out of 67 games this year, averaging 20.9 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.7 assists. We’ll keep you updated as we find out more.
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