Ricky Rubio Unsure When He Will Play Again


Doctors have cleared Ricky Rubio to resume practicing with his teammates. But the Minnesota Timberwolves’ point guard isn’t certain when he’ll suit up for games just yet. When the time comes to play, Rubio doesn’t want any minute restrictions placed on him. Per the Star Tribune: “About eight months and one week after having surgery to repair two torn ligaments in his left knee, Ricky Rubio said the knee feels fine, he can’t wait to practie … But no, he doesn’t yet know, exactly, when he will return to play point guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves. ‘No idea,’ he said, smiling, surrounded by a mob of media after Friday’s shootaround. During the Wolves’ last road trip, Rubio went to visit Richard Steadman, the Vail, Colorado surgeon who repaired his knee on March 21. He was given the green light to go full-out in practice. Now he just has to actually have a practice to get some idea where he stands. ‘It’s going to be my first practice with contact,’ Rubio said of his first true team workout, which could come as early as Saturday. ‘I don’t know how I’m going to feel, if I’m going to feel great, if I’m going to feel weak. I don’t have any idea. I have it all in my mind, ‘Ooh, I want to practice. I want to dunk.’ But I don’t think I can.’ […] Rubio said he has almost 100 percent full movement in the surgically-repaired knee, and feels good about his ability to slash and move side –to-side. He said he will not use a knee brace, but will use a sleeve on the knee at first. But he plans on ditching that as soon as possible. And Rubio sounded like a gradual return isn’t an idea he’s in love with. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said, when asked if he could cut down his minutes to start with. ‘But I will have to. That’s what the doctors said, that the first games we’ll have to limit the minutes, which I say OK. But once I’m out there, I don’t think I can handle that. But it’s going to be coach’s decision to put me on the court.'”