Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic has suffered a calf strain on his road to recovery from a devastating leg injury. Nurkic has been absent from Portland’s lineup since March of 2019 when he fractured his leg in a game against the Brooklyn Nets. He had become a fixture on Portland’s bench early in the 2019-20 season, but has been absent for the last couple of games.

In an interview today on 1080 The Fan in Portland, Jason Quick of The Athletic explained the absence.

The quote from Quick:

Well guys, it’s not good news. I’m trying to pin this down. The most I can pin down for you right now is that Nurkic had a calf strain in the moments after his return to the full-court practice and full-contact practice. His calf had a reaction to that. I don’t know if he’s practiced after that. I don’t know how serious it is. I saw him last night walking into the arena. He was walking fine, without a limp. But the last two games he has not come out to sit on the bench. I don’t want to set off alarms, but I can tell you that I have learned that he has suffered a calf strain. I don’t know if it’s on the left leg, which is where he broke the bones. I don’t know if it’s on his right leg. There has been a, I don’t even know if I can call it a setback, but he has had a reaction to his return to practice that is a little bit of a calf strain. Again, I’m trying to get more information and get some comments from the Blazers, but understandably they’ve been a little tight-lipped today.

Quick also relayed that Zach Collins is on his way to recovery without soreness or setbacks, but predicts that Collins will not return until March.