Gordon Hayward’s fractured hand aside, Boston Celtics point guard Kemba Walker had what was the team’s scariest injury of the season last Friday when a collision with teammate Semi Ojeleye — a man built like a stone wall — caused him to drop to the ground like a bag of rocks.
Stretchers were wheeled out. Players huddled up and prayed. Walker’s mother watched helplessly from her home in Charlotte.
A franchise that’s seen it’s fair share of season-ending injuries, the thought that Walker may have played his last game of the season all too soon crossed many people’s minds.
Miraculously, Walker has made a speedy recovery from what was initially diagnosed as concussion-like symptoms and a neck sprain.
However, Celtics team doctor Tony Schenna described the injury, courtesy of NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg, and the picture he painted was one of legitimate concern that Walker had suffered a much more serious injury.
“In Kemba’s case… he ran head down into Semi. When he landed, he basically had numbness and tingling in his hands. You can imagine that kinda gave him a little bit of shock… He just needed a couple of minutes to collect himself.
He never lost consciousness. He basically stayed on the floor, mostly as a medical precaution.”
Although Walker remained on the floor due to his shock and to as a precaution, the medical team was still well aware of the potentially dire implications that can come from a player experiencing numbness and tingling in their extremities. As a result, Walker was placed on a stretcher before being transported to what Schenna describes as “a level-1 trauma center.”
“Because of the mechanism and because he had numbness and tingling in his hands,” Schenna says, “they took full spine precautions…”
The battery of tests included “a full neurological evaluation, a full set of x-rays… an MRI and… another special set of x-rays once they knew the structures were all stable in his neck to make sure the motion was intact and everything was at normal.”
Their conclusion? The All-Star “had no significant structural damage to the bony architecture of his neck or the soft tissue around his neck.”
Walker was placed in a soft collar because the Celtics would be traveling and sent home.
Once back in Boston, Schenna and a spine surgeon did a full evaluation of Walker’s imaging while sending a copy to a cervical spine specialist at New England Baptist. At that point, Walker “had no symptoms and he was feeling really well, so he passed the exam.”
He was then placed in concussion protocol that included a “full cognitive review,” a “preseason evaluation,” a “light exercise program” and another “full evaluation” that included both a cognitive and cervical spine evaluation.
Kemba passed everything with flying colors. His final test though would come on Tuesday, after participating in practice.
While Walker seemed to recover the feeling in his hands rather quickly, knowing that there was an extensive and thorough evaluation by the Celtics alleviates some concerns about him returning to the court so quickly.
Kemba will now have a chance to suit up against Spencer Dinwiddie and the Brooklyn Nets on Nov. 27 after missing Monday’s game against the Sacramento Kings.
If he does play, he may have a minutes restriction but considering his toughness, it wouldn’t be surprising if he does not.