Dwight Howard's back soreness turned out to be a butt injury

Washington Wizards center Dwight Howard got some mixed news on the injury that has kept him out during the preseason. On the one hand, the issue isn’t serious. On the other, it’s definitely more embarrassing.

Turns out, Howard wasn’t dealing with back soreness after all. It was actually his butt that was the source of his discomfort, according to Shams Charania.

Howard has a piriformis injury, to be exact. The piriformis is a muscle in the buttocks. According to spine-health.com, the piriformis muscle “runs diagonally from the lower spine to the upper surface of the femur, with the sciatic nerve running underneath or through the muscle.” Given that, it’s easy to understand why the injury was initially confused with back pain.

It doesn’t sound like Howard’s injury is severe, which bodes well for him getting back on the court as soon as he recovers from the embarrassment of this injury becoming public knowledge.

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik

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