Kyrie Irving to miss rest of season, playoffs

Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving will have to undergo a second procedure on his left knee and will miss the rest of the regular season and playoffs, the team announced Thursday.

The All-Star guard, who was acquired from the Cleveland Cavaliers in a blockbuster offseason deal, underwent surgery to remove a tension wire in his left knee on March 24. He was originally expected to miss three to six weeks while recovering.

However, the team said that during that procedure a bacterial infection was discovered where Irving had two screws inserted into his patella to repair a fracture suffered during the 2015 NBA Finals. Those screws will be removed in a separate procedure on Saturday to ensure no infection remains in his knee.

“The fracture in Irving’s patella has completely healed, and his knee remains structurally sound,” the Celtics said in a statement. “He is expected to make a full recovery in 4-5 months.”

The news was first reported Thursday by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who cited league sources in breaking the news before the Celtics made it official later in the day.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/celtics/status/981946308431892481″,”author_name”:”Boston Celtics”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/celtics”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/NEBHInjuryReport?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#NEBHInjuryReport&#lt;/a&#gt; Kyrie Irving will undergo a procedure this Saturday to remove two screws implanted in his patella from an injury suffered during the 2015 NBA Finals.&#lt;br&#gt;&#lt;br&#gt;He is expected to make a full recovery in 4-5 months. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/WKQfPlUZ0u”&#gt;https://t.co/WKQfPlUZ0u&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Boston Celtics (@celtics) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/celtics/status/981946308431892481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;April 5, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

The 26-year-old averaged 24.4 points, 5.1 assists and 3.8 rebounds over 60 games in his first season in Boston.

Irving last played in a March 11 loss to the Indiana Pacers, leaving the game with a sore knee after playing just 16 minutes. He later said the knee started bothering him during a March 3 game at Houston.

The Celtics have relied on third-year point guard Terry Rozier since Irving was sidelined. Rozier averaged 17.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists in March, including a career-high 33 points in March 25 road victory over the Sacramento Kings.

However, Rozier missed Tuesday’s road loss to the Milwaukee Bucks with a sprained ankle and then struggled in his return at Toronto on Wednesday, scoring just two points in 28 minutes on 1-of-9 shooting.

{“version”:”1.0″,”title”:”The hardest thing to do sometimes is accept the uncontrollable things life throws at you. You try consistently to learn, grow, and prepare everyday to equip your mind, body, and spirit with tools to deal with some of those things, but I feel when those moments arise they all give you a sense of unfulfillment, simply because it puts some of your professional journey and goals on a brief hold. It’s simply a test of your perseverance and Will, to be present, even in the wake of what’s going on. In this case, finding out I have an infection in my knee is definitely a moment that I now accept and move past without holding on to the all the what ifs, proving the nay-Sayers completely f***ing wrong, and accomplishing the goals I’ve set out for the team and myself. This season was only a snapshot of what’s to come from me. Trust Me. “The journey back to the top of Mt. Everest continues.” #StandingRockSiouxTribennLet’s go Celtics!! Celtics fans, I look forward to hearing how loud it gets in the TD Garden during the playoffs and experiencing how intense the environment gets. Thank you all!”,”author_name”:”kyrieirving”,”author_url”:”https://www.instagram.com/kyrieirving”,”author_id”:10768203,”media_id”:”1750952985768020148_10768203″,”provider_name”:”Instagram”,”provider_url”:”https://www.instagram.com”,”type”:”rich”,”width”:658,”height”:null,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”instagram-media” data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=”https://www.instagram.com/p/BhMonavHMi0/” data-instgrm-version=”8″ style=” background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% – 2px); width:calc(100% – 2px);”&#gt;&#lt;div style=”padding:8px;”&#gt; &#lt;div style=” background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50.0% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;”&#gt; &#lt;div style=” background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;”&#gt;&#lt;/div&#gt;&#lt;/div&#gt; &#lt;p style=” margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;”&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://www.instagram.com/p/BhMonavHMi0/” style=” color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;” target=”_blank”&#gt;The hardest thing to do sometimes is accept the uncontrollable things life throws at you. You try consistently to learn, grow, and prepare everyday to equip your mind, body, and spirit with tools to deal with some of those things, but I feel when those moments arise they all give you a sense of unfulfillment, simply because it puts some of your professional journey and goals on a brief hold. It’s simply a test of your perseverance and Will, to be present, even in the wake of what’s going on. In this case, finding out I have an infection in my knee is definitely a moment that I now accept and move past without holding on to the all the what ifs, proving the nay-Sayers completely f***ing wrong, and accomplishing the goals I’ve set out for the team and myself. This season was only a snapshot of what’s to come from me. Trust Me. “The journey back to the top of Mt. Everest continues.” #StandingRockSiouxTribe Let’s go Celtics!! Celtics fans, I look forward to hearing how loud it gets in the TD Garden during the playoffs and experiencing how intense the environment gets. Thank you all!&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt; &#lt;p style=” color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;”&#gt;A post shared by &#lt;a href=”https://www.instagram.com/kyrieirving/” style=” color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;” target=”_blank”&#gt; Kyrie Irving&#lt;/a&#gt; (@kyrieirving) on &#lt;time style=” font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;” datetime=”2018-04-05T17:38:03+00:00″&#gt;Apr 5, 2018 at 10:38am PDT&#lt;/time&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;&#lt;/div&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async defer src=”//www.instagram.com/embed.js”&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;”,”thumbnail_url”:”https://scontent-ort2-2.cdninstagram.com/vp/2cb0ba25729e608df806419f5b005170/5B6E91D1/t51.2885-15/s640x640/sh0.08/e35/29717033_381607885582099_6738641711322365952_n.jpg”,”thumbnail_width”:640,”thumbnail_height”:640}

Boston currently sits in second place in the Eastern Conference with a 53-25 record. The Celtics are three games behind the Toronto Raptors and five games ahead of the Cavaliers with four games left on their regular-season schedule.

The Celtics next host the Chicago Bulls at TD Garden on Friday night.