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Zion will miss start of season, no timeline for return

Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images Sport / Getty

New Orleans Pelicans star Zion Williamson will miss the start of the regular season as he continues to recover from surgery on his fractured right foot, team president David Griffin said Thursday.

Williamson will be re-evaluated in two weeks and the team has not provided a timeline for his return, Griffin added.

"Zion underwent imaging (Wednesday) on his right foot," Griffin said. "(Doctors) who reviewed those images were very encouraged by the healing evidence there. They are very optimistic he will recover from this, and they have cleared him to continue his progression. The next step for him now will be running and on-court individual work."

The 21-year-old underwent an operation on his foot in late September after he was injured earlier in the offseason. Griffin initially said the team was "very confident" Williamson would be fit for the start of the 2021-22 campaign.

"When it first happened, it sucked," Williamson said following the injury. "But it's a part of the game. I think I was overdoing it when I was training because I felt like I had this huge chip on my shoulder."

The first overall selection in the 2019 draft averaged 27 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 3.7 assists in his second year in the NBA on the heels of a rookie campaign blighted by injury. Williamson appeared in just 24 games in 2019-20 after he suffered a torn meniscus in the preseason.

The Pelicans and first-time head coach Willie Green open the regular season Oct. 20 at the Philadelphia 76ers.

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