LeBron James’ initial injury timeline and possible return date for Lakers

Exploring LeBron James’ initial injury timeline and possible return date. 

It’s far from ideal that the Los Angeles Lakers will likely have to try to make up ground (and the playoffs) in the Western Conference over the course of the next few weeks without LeBron James (foot injury) in the lineup. It’s even more unfortunate considering that the Lakers were beginning to look more and more like a possible dark horse threat in the West.

With the Lakers sitting in 12th place in the West standings, this is a team that has little-to-no room for error if they have any hopes of even making the Play-In Tournament in the West. Not having LeBron from the foreseeable future puts the entire season in jeopardy.

LeBron suffered a foot injury over the weekend in the Lakers’ huge comeback win over the Dallas Mavericks. LeBron managed to finish the game for the Lakers but it was clear after the game that something wasn’t right with his foot. In fact, during the game, you can see LeBron indicate to his teammates that he had heard something pop in his foot.

As a more definite timeline for his injury is determined, it’s safe to say that LeBron will end up missing serious time with this injury. In fact, The Athletic’s Shams Charania is reporting that he’s going to miss an “indefinite amount of time” and that it’s looking like he will miss “at least 2-3 weeks.”

When could LeBron James possibly return for the Los Angeles Lakers?

Without a sourced statement from the team, it’s difficult to pinpoint a real timeline for a possible return for LeBron. It’s even more difficult considering we don’t even know what the injury is being labeled as. All we know is that LeBron has a foot injury. The big question is, even at 38, will LeBron be able to heal faster than most other athletes?

It’s hard to count LeBron out but it’s also a bit unfair to still expect him to return so quickly at his advanced age. For much of his career, LeBron has been pretty untouchable when it comes to injuries. However, we’ve seen him more and more banged up over the last 2-3 years. Maybe that’s what Father Time is going to look like for him.

Either way, if LeBron does return at some point this season, it seems it’s going to be with only 2-3 weeks left in the season. And that’s if he only misses 2-3 weeks with this injury.

From everything we know regarding this injury, it’s looking more and more like the Lakers are going to have to figure out how to qualify for the playoffs without LeBron. And hopefully, he’s back for the playoffs, but that seems to be far from a guarantee.