Before you can get caught up on the injury situation regarding Chicago Bulls star guard Derrick Rose, you need to understand one thing: not all sprains of the toe are necessarily turf toe, but all turf toe injuries are sprains of the toe. Got it? Good. Earlier in the week, head coach Tom Thibodeau insisted that Rose's injury was merely a sprain and not the chronic condition known as turf toe, saying: "it's a sprain and hopefully he'll be back in a day. It's (different) than a turf toe." The reigning MVP missed a game against the Washington Wizards while nursing his injury earlier in the week, but returned to action on Friday night and helped the Bulls knock off the Boston Celtics, 88-79.
After Friday night's win, Rose spoke to Sam Smith of Bulls.com about the severity and nature of his toe injury. He noted that he has been dealing with pain regularly since his sophomore season and that Adidas -- the shoe company that endorses him -- has sent him an insert to prevent him from bending his toe. Here is what Rose specifically added regarding his turf toe injury:
"I'll probably lose a step, but this is just preparing me for when I get old," Rose joked before Friday's game against the Celtics. I've been getting a lot of treatment on it. Hopefully it should be ready. I was very surprised when I woke up the next morning [after the Timberwolves game] and I couldn't walk. That was something that scared me. I went to get X-rays on it. The x-rays were negative."
"I have turf toe. That was a sprain. That's all it is. Turf toe is just a hyperextended toe. Turf toe is nothing but a sprain."
But as we know, turf toe is a bit different than just a sprain. Turf toe is an injury to the soft tissue around the big toe joint that can limit a player's ability to push off, shift weight and absorb force, and it can be chronic if not given the proper time to heal.
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