As I mentioned in my Bulls Notebook on Monday, I got a bit of an inside tip this past weekend that said perhaps Derrick Rose isn't as close to returning as some reports have hinted. An ESPN Chicago reporter told me when he saw Rose running before Friday's win over the Detroit Pistons, the reigning MVP was in obvious pain. The word used was 'wincing'.
A night later, ESPN's Ric Bucher tweeted Rose is on his way back, and could play as early as this Thursday versus the Boston Celtics. The latest update from the Tribune's K.C. Johnson says Rose should practice on Wednesday and return either against Boston or the team the Bulls plays after the Celtics, the New York Knicks.
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As Matt at Blog-a-Bull noted, Johnson and Bucher are likely their information from the team, and we all know Tom Thibodeau and Co. haven't been very forthright in describing their own aches and pains this season. Thibodeau's approach to filing an injury report has been said to be Belichick-ian.
And now there's this. NBA.com reporter Steve Aschburner joined The Mully and Hanley Show on The Score today and said he's heard the injury is pretty serious. Emphasis comes from Blog-a-Bull, who tipped us off.
"It's sure looking like the mother of all groin strains," Steve Aschburner of NBA.com told The Mully and Hanley Show. "I don't know that there's anything else you can do besides put the guy in a bubble and prevent him from moving around at all. People who have seen him try to run have said that it looks painful to them the way he moves. I heard people say that when he walks up the ramp at the United Center that he's hanging on to the railing, he's helping himself up or down. ... It seems serious. Groin strain is so generic that you think ‘Oh, we've seen guys come back in a game or two.' To me, it has shifted since Sunday from ‘Oh, he's a game-time decision' to ‘He will play a game before the regular season ends.' There's only 11 left."
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