Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs will miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on his injured left knee.
The Magic announced his status on Tuesday. Suggs underwent a procedure to remove a cartilage fragment in his knee and to repair the trochlear joint surface. The trochlea is the groove where the kneecap sits at the end of the femur. Suggs is expected to make a full recovery.
The Magic previously announced Suggs would undergo surgery and that he would be out indefinitely.
The news is another blow to a Magic team that’s been plagued by injury this season. All-Star Paolo Banchero and rising star Franz Wagner both missed significant time early in the season with oblique injuries.
Suggs played in just 35 of Orlando’s 62 games and just one since experiencing back spasms in a Jan. 3 game against the Toronto Raptors. He experienced knee discomfort during his recovery from his back injury, prompting testing that revealed the need for surgery.
Banchero and Wagner have both recovered from their injuries, and the Magic have remained in playoff contention. They entered Tuesday in eighth place in the Eastern Conference at 29-33. But they’ll play the rest of the season without their starting point guard, who was in the midst of a career season before his injuries.
Suggs averaged a career-high 16.2 points, four rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.5 steals this season and is one of the league’s better backcourt defenders. If the Magic manage to make the postseason, they’ll be playing at a significant disadvantage with Suggs sidelined.
