Derrick Rose is suffering through a terribly painful toe sprain on his left big toe, and he may not be able to suit up against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday Night. The Bulls and Rose have danced around and flip flopped on whether the injury is a sprain on the top of the toe or a more severe and chronic turf toe injury. KC Johnson of the Chicago Tribune talked to Rose on Friday, and the guard seemed completely unsure about when he would be able to return to the court:
"Knowing that right when it starts feeling good it can go right back to zero, I have to make the smart decision. I wasn't able to bend my toe in like three years. When this injury happened, I aggravated it and I played on it sooner. It was real bad. Injuries are going to happen. That's why I always get treatment. This is worse than my second season. That season, I just played through it but it wasn't that bad. Not being able to bend my toe in three years and somebody just forced their weight on my toe, it definitely hurt it."
While Rose described the horrific pain of his current injury, head coach Tom Thibodeau's was on AM1000 the day before to make the diagnosis seem even less clear than before, calling it "more of a sprain than the turf toe". In any case, Rose is feeling pain and a lack of mobility in his injured left toe and likely won't be able to go against the Cavs. As Johnson pointed out, if Rose misses both games of the back-to-back he will have rested for eight days in this compressed season.
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