Jalen McDaniels Addresses Recent Injury Setback

76ers reserve Jalen McDaniels details his recent injury, which has forced him to miss time.

Jalen McDaniels doesn’t feel like himself at the moment.

After the Philadelphia 76ers veteran hurt his hip going against the Washington Wizards last weekend, he went back to the team’s locker room to get checked out. 

The Sixers diagnosed McDaniels with a hip contusion. He was ruled out for the remainder of the matchup as the Sixers cruised past the Wizards with a 19-point win.

Doc Rivers wasn’t worried about McDaniels’ setback after the game. Two days later, the head coach was actually confident that McDaniels wouldn’t miss extended time, although he didn’t practice before the Sixers left for their current road trip.

It turned out that Rivers was wrong. Going into Wednesday’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, McDaniels was questionable. While the Sixers considered him a game-time decision, the chances of him playing were small.

Inevitably, McDaniels missed Wednesday’s matchup against the Cavaliers. That's expected to be the case again on Friday when the Sixers pay a visit to McDaniels former team, the Charlotte Hornets.

Going into the matchup, McDaniels was considered questionable. Following a shootaround session where McDaniels was described as a “partial participant.” Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer added that the veteran forward was expected to miss his second-straight game.

After McDaniels participated in shootaround and was involved in some post-shootaround drills, the veteran explained why he’s limited to just participating in drills at the moment.

“Just being physical. Me being a skinner-type dude, I have to be physical. So without that, I’m just like nothing now w/ the injury. I can’t hit somebody like I want to. I felt like TJ…was kind of doing his thing. I really couldn’t do mine back.”

Since joining the Sixers, McDaniels has only been unavailable for one game, which was Wednesday’s matchup in Cleveland. Friday’s game was set to become McDaniels’ first return to Charlotte since the February trade. 

Unfortunately, McDaniels is expected to be watching from the sidelines as he’s reportedly set to miss the matchup once again.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.