Warriors star Steph Curry opens up on relief of avoiding surgery on injured shoulder

Following an injury to his left shoulder, Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry told reporters that he was relieved to find out he wouldn’t need surgery.

Curry suffered the injury to his shoulder while trying to defend against Jalen Smith, who ran into the Warriors star’s arm. Curry immediately grabbed his shoulder while hunched over and went to the locker room during the timeout.

‘There’s kind of two or three different outcomes, and then it was just a matter of making sure I didn’t need surgery and [that] my shoulder will be able to heal on its own, however long that took,’ he said.

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) grabs his shoulder after being hurt Thursday

He appeared in a lot of pain, but it was later revealed that he would not need surgery to repair it

‘Because I know the surgeries are four to six months [recovery time],’ Curry added with a smile, ‘and nobody wants to be dealing with that right now.’ 

The injury to Curry’s shoulder was diagnosed as a subluxation that will require him to miss ‘a few weeks’, as first reported by ESPN.

According to verywellhealth.com, a joint subluxation is a partial dislocation of a joint. It is often the result of acute injury or repetitive motion injury but can also be caused by medical conditions that undermine the integrity of ligaments.

Dwayne Wade suffered a similar injury in 2008 when he dislocated his shoulder, which caused him to miss 23 games for the Miami Heat.

Jalen Smith goes up for a shot as Curry is seen immediately grabbing his shoulder in pain

Regardless, Curry is hoping that the fact that this is the first time he has suffered an injury to his shoulder will lead to him having a quick recovery time, as opposed to if he had reoccurring problems with his shoulder.

‘It’s hard to say, just because it’s the first time I’ve done it,’ Curry said, when asked for a timeline for his return. ‘There’s a couple guys I’ve seen that had a little bit more severe cases, you know their timelines, you kind of do your guesswork. 

‘But just knowing this is the first time, you try to stay away from, me mentally, just trying to stay away from how long it’s going to be because [my shoulder] will let me know.’ 

The 14-15 Warriors will have a large amount of work ahead of them regardless of when it comes to replacing Curry. 

The Warriors bench has been largely ineffective, but will have to step up in Curry’s absence

The 34-year-old has been playing brilliantly this season despite the team’s early struggles, averaging 30 points on 50% shooting, to go along with 43.4 percent from 3-point range on 11.6 attempts per game, 6.8 assists, and 6.6 rebounds.

In terms of how he expects the Warriors to perform for the rest of the season – amid an absolutely miserable 2-13 on the road and getting minimal production from the bench – Curry smiled and said, ‘That’s always kind of a good sound bite, just because it gives you something to key on.

‘But I think where we’re at, we just want to win a road game and take it from there.’

Golden State’s quest to win a road game without the player who has been the heart and soul of their team will begin in Philadelphia on Friday night before the Warriors go to Toronto, New York and Brooklyn to wrap up a six-game road trip they have started at 0-2.

Jordan Poole will likely be called upon to pick up a large amount of the slack while Curry is out