Jaylen Brown reportedly played through a partial meniscus tear, could undergo surgery
Brown’s name appeared on the Celtics’ injury report during the second half of the season due to right knee ailments beginning in February.
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The severity of Jaylen Brown’s lingering right knee injury is now known.
Brown played through a partial meniscus tear in his knee, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
Shelburne reported Saturday that the player received pain injections in the knee beginning in March. Brown’s knee pain first emerged in the final month of the regular season, she said.
Surgery is not off the table, per Shelburne. Whether or not Brown will undergo repair will be decided “this week.”
The forward’s name, associated with various knee ailments such as “right knee swelling” and “right knee posterior impingement,” began appearing on the Celtics’ injury report in early February.
Brown missed several regular-season games due to his injury. He sat out the Celtics’ final three regular-season games before the first round against the Magic.
However, Shelburne reported, Brown “was able to modify his game and play through pain” in the playoffs. He started each of the team’s 11 games despite seemingly still struggling with a meniscus tear.
After Friday’s Game 6 season-ending loss to the Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals, Brown spoke briefly about his knee injury. He didn’t go into specifics, but now it’s clear that his diagnosis isn’t ideal.
“Nothing to talk about right now,” Brown told reporters when asked about his health. “We’ll see what the next steps are.”
According to the Cleveland Clinic, meniscus surgery recovery can range from a few weeks to a few months. One’s timetable differs depending on the severity of the tear and what type of surgery they undergo. Therefore, deciding whether Brown needs surgery or not doesn’t need to be rushed, with about five months until the start of the 2025-26 season.
Despite the physical issues he dealt with behind the scenes over the last few months, Brown was still performing on the court. In the postseason, he averaged 22.1 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 1 steal per game. Brown couldn’t fill the void of Jayson Tatum over the last two-and-a-half contests, but he was arguably the best player on the court in Games 5 and 6 against New York.
For more reasons than one, the Celtics have an interesting offseason ahead of them. Tatum’s recovery, coupled with Brown’s and Kristaps Porzingis’s, will undoubtedly be at the forefront of people’s minds as Boston looks to reset after a disappointing finish.
“I don’t make no excuses, obviously,” Brown said. “It’s tough the way we went out like tonight. But the way we finished the year – personally, the way I finished the year, persevering through some physical stuff that I was battling through – I’m proud of our group. I thought that we fought.”
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