Ricky Rubio Won’t Rush His Return

Ricky Rubio, echoing his boss, thinks he might be back in December or January. But the young point guard won’t return until he’s at 100 %. Per the Star Tribune: “Back running on his surgically repaired knee for the third week now, injured Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio stopped long enough Thursday at Target Center to show off three scars that stripe his left leg and said he could play his next NBA game by December, nine months after he tore two ligaments there. ‘I don’t know, they say December, but it could be January,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to say a time because I don’t want to rush it. I want to be ready when I am ready.’ Rubio returned to Vail, Colo., three weeks ago for another checkup with his surgeon and was given approval to begin running again in three- minute segments alternated with walking. He plans one more trip there to see knee specialist Dr. Richard Steadman. ‘But it’s just to shake the hand with the doctor when I’m ready, when I’m ready to roll,’ he said. Rubio was able to shoot free throws all summer while he was rehabilitating that left knee in Minnesota and back home in Spain. He said Steadman told him he can begin jumping by November, but Rubio is hopeful it’s before then and insists he’s not putting any timetable on the steps to his return. ‘There’s not a time because it depends on how the knee goes,’ he said. ‘Now I start running and I feel good. In three, four weeks, I’m gonna start agility and if my knee swells a little bit, I have to stop. If not, I’m going to keep pushing it. I’m trying to do as much as I can do. They have to stop me sometimes because I want to do more. Sometimes it’s just bad for my knee to do more things.’ […] ‘I can only run, I can’t move lateral,’ Rubio said. ‘I can only watch and be an assistant coach.'”