Oklahoma City said Jalen Williams would be “re-evaluated prior to the end of the 2026-27 regular season” after surgery on his left ankle and fibula, a careful phrasing that leaves open the possibility of a playoff return rather than ruling him out.
Williams went down on 25 October in the fourth quarter of a win over the Los Angeles Clippers, caught mid-air on a drive and landing awkwardly before being carried off on a stretcher. He had surgery three days later at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, performed by Dr. Martin O’Malley with Thunder medical staff present.
Thunder general manager Sam Presti described the mechanism of the injury as unusual for the sport.
“This is an injury that generally we see more in football players,” Presti said.
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Doctor walks the season-ender back
Dr. David Chao, the former NFL team physician who writes as ProFootballDoc, initially floated a season-ending prognosis, then revised his read after factoring in the NBA’s long postseason schedule.
“Six months is the timeline. Okay, that’s the early timeline. It’s six to nine months,” Chao told Heavy.
Chao added that it is not impossible for Williams to return this season, noting that the six-month marker from a late-October surgery lands in late April 2027, around the end of the regular season on 11 April and the start of the playoffs.
Dr. Evan Jeffries, a doctor of physical therapy, has projected a wider window of four to six months if recovery goes well, while cautioning that a full-season absence is still realistic. Neither doctor has examined Williams.
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A roster already stretched thin
The Thunder are already shorthanded. Cason Wallace tore his labrum in the same game against the Clippers and needs surgery, and Chet Holmgren is out with a patellar tendon tear picked up around the same stretch. Oklahoma City went 5-2 through the first week of November with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the lone healthy All-NBA-caliber starter.
The Ringer’s Zach Lowe cut Oklahoma City’s title probability to roughly 10 per cent and tilted his Western Conference odds toward the San Antonio Spurs in the wake of the injuries.
Williams’s next milestone is the team’s own re-evaluation window, which closes on 11 April 2027, the final day of the regular season.
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