Bryant out for up to 9 months with torn Achilles

LOS ANGELES - Agence France-Presse

Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, left, puts up a shot in Los Angeles on Friday. AP Photo

Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant faces up to nine months on the sidelines after his season-ending injury was confirmed as a torn left Achilles, the NBA team said on April 13.

The 15-time all-star Bryant had left the court in agony toward the end of Friday’s 118-116 win over Golden State and later declared his season over.

The Lakers confirmed he now faced between six and nine months on the sidelines following the injury. Bryant was scheduled to have surgery on Saturday to repair the damage, said Lakers head trainer Gary Vitti, who described the torn tendon as a “third rupture.” “It is gone. It has to be sewn back together,” said Vitti.

Bryant said immediately after the game that he felt a “pop” as he tried to beat Harrison Barnes to the outside with just over three minutes left in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s tight contest.

“I felt like I got kicked. It is a move I make a million times and pop,” Bryant said. “Just a freak situation I guess. I tried to put pressure on my heel to see if I can do it that way and there is nothing there,” Bryant said. “I had no Achilles, that is the sensation.” Bryant later vented in the early morning hours Saturday on his social network Facebook page saying that he isn’t sure he can come back 100 percent from the rehabilitation.

“The frustration is unbearable. The anger is rage. Why the hell did this happen ?!? Makes no damn sense. Now I’m supposed to come back from this and be the same player Or better at 35?!? How in the world am I supposed to do that?? Maybe this is how my book ends,” he wrote. “Maybe Father Time has defeated me. Then again maybe not.”