Report: Sixers hoping Joel Embiid can return for last week of regular season

It’s been five weeks today since Joel Embiid was sidelined to undergo a procedure to repair an injured meniscus in his left knee, and he was given a reported timeline of six to eight weeks to return.

On Tuesday, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne gave an update on NBA Today that Embiid’s return won’t quite line up with that six-to-eight week estimate and the Sixers are instead hoping he can return for the final week of the season (starting at 1:33 in the clip below):

“Well, he’s not anywhere close right now to coming back, but he is able get on the court and do some light work here,” Shelburne said. “The hope that they have in Philly is that they can just stay in the mix for Joel Embiid to come back the last week or so of the season, at least where he has a chance to get back some conditioning before the playoffs.”

If Embiid does return for the start of the final week of the regular season, that would put his recovery at just under nine weeks, so slightly over the top end of the original timeline. If this does end up being the case, unfortunately it would only allow minimal time for Embiid to try to get back in game shape and for the team to readjust before the playoffs.

In the meantime, as the Sixers have continued to deal with absences to other key players as well like Nicolas Batum and the still-injured De’Anthony Melton, it’s been tough going for the team without Embiid. They’ve gone 7-11 and ranked 25th in net rating at -6.1 since Embiid’s surgery. At least they now have Tyrese Maxey back in action after he missed four games due to concussion protocol.

The challenge now is to hold onto a playoff seeding that can keep the team out of the play-in.