Lakers Medical Analysis: Jalen Hood-Schifino’s back surgery and recovery timeline
Let’s examine Jalen Hood-Schifino’s lumbar microdiscectomy procedure and how long the Lakers could be without him.
Los Angeles Lakers rookie guard Jalen Hood-Schifino underwent a lumbar microdiscectomy procedure on Thursday, as revealed in a press release by the team, which further noted that everything had gone to plan.
The injury comes at a particularly bad time for Hood-Schifino, who was finally finding his rhythm and confidence on the court in the G League after missing a significant amount of time due to injury early on in the season.
In the following video, I explain the back surgery, including the injury it’s intended to alleviate, how long JHS could be out — will he miss summer league? — and my overall level of concern for him moving forward.
Obviously, an injury is never ideal for any player, and Hood-Schifino has now dealt with two that will cause him to miss significant time during his rookie season. That being said, it’s not that uncommon to see rookies struggle with some injuries because the jump in intensity and games played from college to the pros is massive.
Jalen's goal now is simply to focus on his recovery day by day and make sure he’s ready to go when his number is called next. There’s plenty of time for him to make a full recovery and continue to develop.
Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, and runs his own in-person and online sports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA and partners with Quantum Performance in which he further combines his movement expertise and fitness training background to rehab & train elite athletes.
He also works at a hospital — giving him experience with patients in the immediate healthcare setting and neurological patients (post stroke, post brain injury) — and has been practicing for over 5 years. Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC), has a background in youth basketball coaching and analyzes the Lakers from a medical and skills perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and on his own YouTube Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @3cbPerformance.