At the start of the NBA season, Boston’s depth was put to the test. News that starting center Robert Williams III would have surgery on the same knee he damaged late in the 2021–22 regular season broke out before training camp.
Williams was a standout performer last year. He contributed significantly to the Celtics winning the season with the best defensive rating in the NBA, earning him votes for defensive player of the year and his first career All-Defensive selection.
What will Williams do next? Here is what we currently know about his injury and his potential comeback to the court.
Prior to the 2022–23 season, Williams would have arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, according to Sean Deveney of Heavy on September 20. The process, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, was called a “cleanup.”
Williams had surgery on Sept. 23 to “remove loose bodies and reduce swelling” in his knee, according to the Celtics.
Williams underwent a partial meniscectomy to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee, which caused him to miss the remainder of the regular season in 2021–2022 and the beginning of the NBA Playoffs in 2022.
How long will Robert Williams be out?
Williams was predicted to require a total of four to six weeks to heal by Wojnarowski, but the Celtics later revealed that he will likely be ready to play basketball again in eight to 12 weeks.
According to that schedule, Williams might not return until the middle of November or the middle of December.
Williams may be sidelined for a lengthier period of time, according to an update from Shams Charania of The Athletic on October 18. Williams is said to have received a PRP injection to speed up the healing of his knee.
He would eventually make a comeback during the second part of the season, according to Charania. His hope, according to what I’ve been informed, is for sometime in December or January, but it might happen even later.