Philadelphia 76ers rookie Zhaire Smith requires surgery after allergic reaction
The Philadelphia 76ers were struck by even more unfortunate injury news about yet another young prospect, announcing on Thursday that first-round pick Zhaire Smith required a surgical procedure.
Smith suffered “an allergic reaction to a food product” that required thoracoscopy surgery on Wednesday, the team said in a statement. He was recovering at the time of Thursday’s announcement.
According to medical journals, a thoracoscopy involves an incision into the chest through which a doctor can examine the chest cavity with a narrow fiberoptic camera and treat potential concerns with small instruments. Hospital care traditionally ranges from same-day release to five days of monitoring, and recovery can generally take between one and three weeks. Smith’s procedure was performed by Thomas Jefferson University Director of Thoracic Surgery Dr. Nathaniel Evans.
Zhaire Smith broke his foot in August
Smith was already recovering from a Jones fracture in his left foot, which he suffered during an NBA developmental camp in August. The No. 16 overall pick in this past June’s NBA draft was projected to be healthy enough to make his NBA debut at some point around Christmas, per the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Keith Pompey. Smith was cleared to put the full bearing of his weight on the foot last week.
When healthy, the 19-year-old is considered an electrifying scoring guard and another potential building block for Philadelphia’s talented young core. The 76ers traded hometown prospect Mikal Bridges to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Smith and a future first-round pick.
The Sixers’ tough injury luck
Hopefully, this latest procedure is a minor hiccup in Smith’s recovery, but Sixers fans will surely brace for more bad news. A long line of top Sixers picks have been bit badly by the injury bug over the past five years. Nerlens Noel, Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz all missed the entirety — or close to it — of their rookie seasons due to injuries, including foot fractures that cost Embiid and Simmons a total of three seasons. Embiid has gone so far as to call the string of injuries a “curse.”
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Ben Rohrbach is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
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