Stephen Curry spoke for the first time since his shoulder injury on Wednesday, telling reporters that he’s thankful to have avoided surgery that would’ve kept him out for four to six months, essentially ending his season.
“From what I know about shoulder injuries if you can avoid surgery or anything like that, that’s great news,” Curry said on Friday.
Reports on Thursday were that Curry would miss “a few weeks” with the injury. Dwayne Wade sustained a similar shoulder injury in 2008 — although his was a dislocation rather than a subluxation — and he missed 23 games.
“Trying to figure out how to get pain free quickly and then get the strength back and work your way back into it appropriately,” Curry said about the recovery process. “It’s interesting because it’s the first time I’ve done it and those usually take a little longer than if it’s a recurring thing. Just got to trust the plan that we have and do my work.”
Curry said he’s trying not to make any proclamations about when he might return.
“It’s hard to say just because it’s the first time I’ve done it. A couple guys who I’ve seen that had a little more severe cases with their timelines, I could do some guesswork. I’m trying to mentally stay away from trying to predict just because they’ll let me know.”
Curry sustained the injury when he reached in and stripped the ball from Jalen Smith on a drive to the hoop. Curry reportedly had his shoulder wrapped in the locker room but was in good spirits.
Though the injury is to his non-shooting arm, Curry doesn’t believe that will allow him to return any quicker.
“I don’t think it helps you get back quicker, I just know it helps with overall use of it,” Curry said. “One thing I do know when you hurt something like this it becomes a little more unstable, there’s nothing you can really do about that unless you’re going to get surgery. It’s just trying to manage it as much as possible for the rest of the year. But knowing it is the left, that’s fortunate in that respect, kind of the same thing when I broke my hand. More just a feel thing because I can still shoot the ball but I don’t think it helps you come back any quicker.”