The Official Site of Jermaine O'Neal

Sat, Jan 15th 2011, 11:48

Jermaine O'Neal weighs injury options

Boston Celtics center Jermaine O’Neal said Friday that he will decide on Tuesday whether or not he will undergo surgery on his injured left knee, which has caused him to miss 21 games this season.

O’Neal has already met with Celtics team doctor Brian McKeon and will seek a second opinion on Monday, and quite possibly a third opinion from another doctor in Miami via telephone, before ultimately deciding whether or not he will have an operation performed. O’Neal said that he would prefer to try to play through the injury and will resort to surgery only if he can be guaranteed that the operation will solve the problem completely.

“Surgery is the worst-case scenario for me,” said O’Neal. “If it’s going to elevate me and get me out of this mode, then I’m all for it. If you can’t guarantee me that it’s going to get me out of this mode, then I’m not going to do it.”

O’Neal would not reveal what the actual injury is — “I’ll tell you Tuesday,” he said repeatedly — suggesting that he does not want external media debate as he contemplates his decision. O’Neal said the initial injury occurred earlier in the season while he was cutting on the court and reaffirmed that it did not happen in the offseason.

“I felt good coming into the season; I didn’t have any issues over the summertime,” said O’Neal. “I let go, I trained extremely hard and got into the season and had a situation where I cut, I was almost cutting on the court, and all of a sudden my knee flared up.”

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