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Trae Young injury update: Hawks star gets good news on ankle, could return to action next week, per report

While it appeared that Trae Young‘s hot start to the 2019-20 season hit a major obstacle Tuesday night after going down early in the second quarter against the Miami Heat with an ankle injury, the talented guard won’t miss much time, after all.

While driving to the basket against the Heat, Young looked to roll his ankle pretty badly. He immediately limped to the locker room, and was almost instantly ruled out for the night with a right ankle sprain. 

Young’s X-Rays came back negative, as reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, and while an MRI to get a more in-depth look at Young’s ankle was the plan, the Atlanta Hawks received even better news Wednesday morning. Wojnarowski reported that after seeing improvement in Young’s right ankle today, there is no MRI scheduled and he could return to the lineup as early as next week. 

Young wasn’t too concerned with the injury following Tuesday night’s game, saying he felt good and hoped to be “day-to-day.”

Young’s full comments on the injury and how he’s feeling:

“For me I got it looked at, just trying to see what’s all wrong with it. Right now, I’ll be day-to-day. I feel good. See how tomorrow feels and go from there.”

“I was able to put weight on it walking back once I got closer to the locker room. But it’s definitely something that they want me to stay off it as much as possible right now.”

Young had been quite durable so far in his career, missing only one game last season. He did not miss a game in college either, and he has had a perfect bill of health this season. Given his lean frame, there had certainly been some concerns, though. This injury will no doubt draw comparisons to the ankle injuries sustained by Stephen Curry early in his career, as the two have often been compared early in Young’s career. 

The injury is a minor setback to what had been an absolutely stellar start to the season for Young and the Hawks. He averaged 34 points and 9.0 assists per game through his team’s first three games while shooting an incredible 52 percent from behind the arc. That wasn’t going to be sustainable, but it was proof that last season’s hot run down the stretch was no fluke. Young appears to be an All-Star caliber player, and that had lifted Atlanta to new heights. 

The Hawks have missed the playoffs in each of the past two seasons, but they were one of the last two undefeated teams in the Eastern Conference this year. They lost a battle of the unbeaten teams in their matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday by only two points, proving that they could hang with the best teams that the NBA has to offer.

Once Young went down on Tuesday night, the Hawks collapsed in the second and third quarters, and lost to the Heat, 112-97, to drop to 2-2. For the season, the Hawks are now plus-28 when Young is on the floor, and minus-24 when he sits. Luckily for the Hawks, it looks like they won’t have to worry about playing without their star point guard for too long, which is great news because it’s evident they need him on the floor as much as possible. 

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