Why Did Damian Lillard Have Surgery? |

November 17, 2022 09:31 PM

"I didn't realize how bad it was because I had been dealing with it for 4 1/2 years"

Damian Lillard says swelling was the size of a baseball after games. After ab surgery, he's been able to "build himself up from scratch"

"I really feel the strongest I've ever felt"#RipCity pic.twitter.com/BxYbIgbJye
— Orlando Sanchez (@orlandokgw) July 20, 2022

Damian Lillard's abdominal surgery in January of 2022 was necessitated by a lower abdominal tendinopathy injury. This injury is a strain or damage to the tendon that connects the rectus abdominis muscle that runs down the center of your abdomen to the pelvic bone. Symptoms of this injury include pain that is felt just above the groin/genital area.

Dealing with this injury for four and a half years - it was aggravated at the Summer Olympics. After games, his groin area would be swelled up like a baseball and he’d be in intense pain. Lillard first missed a game due to it on Nov. 14 and was sidelined from Dec. 1-12. Despite playing through discomfort in the past, it was decided it was getting worse and surgery was necessary for a full recovery.

Lillard missed the rest of the 2021-2022 season but used that time to get his body and mind back into top shape.

“At the Olympics, it was as bad as it’s been, and I was just like, ‘Man, this is a real issue. ‘There was really no time for me to do it. I just decided to rest,” Lillard said, via Blazers.com. “I took like 30 days where I didn’t do nothing, and I felt a lot better coming into camp. I felt fresh. I had been working out and stuff. It hadn’t been giving me any trouble because I was coming off such a long break, and then the second that we started camp, I felt good the first day, day and a half. Then I started to feel it again, and I was like, ‘Man, I thought the rest would help for a longer period of time.’ But it didn’t.”

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