Leandro Barbosa wanted Toronto to be a new start for him. And on the court it kind of has been, he has been one of the bright spots for Toronto this preseason.
But the past keeps haunting him.
Last season he missed a couple months with a wrist surgery. Doctors took another look at that wrist last Friday after he injured it in practice — and said that wrist would need surgery again, he told the Globe and Mail.
“I had a surgery [last season] and I don’t know if they didn’t do it right or they didn’t finish right so they want me to come back for the playoffs [but] there’s no ligament at all,” he said.
“The surgery I did was to remove a cyst. The cyst was attached to the ligament, so when they took out the cyst the ligament was already bad.”
He said he had no pain until he reinjured it Friday, now he is practicing and is expected to go in the team’s season opener, just with the wrist heavily taped.
“It’s not 100 per-cent, but I’m going to play and be there with my teammates and try to do my best…so if I feel comfortable, everything will be okay. If not then I’ll have to do a couple of things.
“We’ll see how far we go,” said Barbosa, who is being counted on to provide scoring punch for the Raptors second unit. “If I don’t feel comfortable and I feel like I can’t shoot the ball and can’t dribble I’ll have to go in a different direction.”