For Philadelphia 76ers guard Josh Richardson, a hamstring injury is nothing new. He suffered a right hamstring injury earlier in the season that cost him some time and when he was just beginning to round into form, he then injured his left hamstring.
He has missed four games so far with the left hamstring strain and will miss a fifth game on Monday night against the Miami Heat. At this current point in time, Richardson is such an important piece for this team on both ends of the floor so he wants to take it slow in his recovery process.
“I feel good,” he explained. “When you’re starting to first come back, you’re kind of careful. So I was just trying to be smart and careful about it, but I feel good.”
Monday morning, the Sixers had begun to ramp up his workload a little bit. The team is beginning to have him run and sprint a little bit to test out the hamstring and let him play in some 2-on-2 right now with light contact and some different drills to test it out.
“I just started testing it the last couple of days,” he added. “I went hard this morning so that felt good. Sprinting, 2-on-2, hard accelerations, harder stops, cuts, stuff that’s like explosive.”
Considering he just went through that right hamstring issue earlier in the season, he has experience with this kind of injury and he understands what he wants and has to do in order to heal properly.
“Yeah, I try not to focus on overcompensating on one leg like not working on the one that I hurt,” he added. “I want to work on both of them and keep them even.”
With the All-Star break approaching and then the sprint to the playoffs soon after, the Sixers need him healthy and ready to roll. It’s best to take his time and let this heal properly. [lawrence-related id=24846,24830,24792]