Chris Bosh said he was “absolutely” ready for training camp after blood-clot issues sidelined him the last two Februaries.
The Heat apparently disagree.
Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald:A complication has arisen in medical tests involving Heat forward Chris Bosh, derailing his attempted comeback, according to a source.
The complication involved evidence of some continued clotting and is believed to be related to one of two previous blood clot episodes.
The Heat had gone into this week expecting to clear Bosh to resume his career this season, according to multiple sources briefed on the situation. But his clearance by the Heat always was contingent on Bosh passing his physical and no issues surfacing during a battery of Heat-administered medical tests this week.
And when an issue arose in blood work this week, the Heat concluded he could not be cleared to return.
This isn’t likely to go over well with Bosh, who has campaigned publicly for the Heat to allow him to play. There seems to be some distrust about whether the Heat want Bosh back on the court or would prefer to remove his salary from the cap through an injury exclusion.
Blood clots are a serious matter, and the blood thinners required to treat them typically mean someone can’t do physical activities like play basketball. Bosh has proposed an alternate blood thinner that leaves his body before games, but it was never clear the Heat were on board with that plan.
They’re clearly not now, given this latest complication.
Thankfully, it’s not life-threatening. Career-threatening, though? It’ll be interesting to see how Bosh and the Heat each respond to that prospect.