After an injury that looked much worse at the time, this is good news — but Danilo Gallinari is still going to miss some time.
An MRI showed Gallinari suffered a meniscus tear in his left knee, but there was no other ligament damage — his ACL and MCL are fine — the Italian national basketball team announced Sunday. Gallinari himself confirmed it on Twitter.
⚠️ Official medical report: meniscus lesion. I won't play #Eurobasket in my home town.
— DANILO GALLINARI (@gallinari8888) August 28, 2022
Gallinari is out for EuroBasket for Italy (the fourth time he has had to miss the competition). How much time he will miss with the Celtics is unclear, it depends on where the tear is and the severity of it. However, it is likely just part of the season. Gallinari released this statement to his fans on social media (hat tip Eurohoops for the translation).
“It hurts like hell. Not so much the knee that it gave up in yesterday’s game that we won again thanks to our character. That will take some time – fortunately less than expected – to get back to normal. It damn hurts to give up this national team dream. We wanted to treat ourselves to magical nights. In my own house. In our house.
Unfortunately, today was a bad awakening. At the Milan clinic where I was accompanied by professor Cortina [ed. note: the doctor of the Italian national team] and all the medical staff of the national team, the results of the clinical findings arrived: meniscus injury.
Gotta give up on #EuroBasket.
Just in a summer that seemed perfect. We need to accept fate and look forward. I will be alongside this group in every game, to give joy to thousands of Italians this summer. Our journey continues, regardless of what…
Let’s go Azzurri 💪🇮🇹"
The non-contact injury looked a lot worse when it happened.
Danilo Gallinari appears to suffer a non-contact knee injury on this play.
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) August 27, 2022
Prayers up for Gallo 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/DT5VRHoB2U
The Celtics bright in Gallinari for depth this season, giving him a two-year contract at the taxpayers’ mid-level exception ($6.5 million this season, a player option for $6.8 million next season). Gallinari is a 6'10", floor-spacing four — 38.1% from 3 last season — who Ime Udoka can use this season to keep the minutes of Al Horford and Jayson Tatum down (keeping the key players fresh for the playoffs). Gallinari is a plus on the offensive end but struggles on defense, Celtics fans will likely not see much of him in the playoffs.
