Brandon Ingram will miss the start of the 2026-27 season. The 29-year-old forward, acquired in the September trade that sent Kawhi Leonard back to Toronto, was diagnosed with a partial tear of his right Achilles tendon during the heel procedure he underwent in May.
Clippers interim president of basketball operations Trent Redden broke the news on Monday 28 September, laying out a picture that is cautious rather than catastrophic. Ingram is already five months out from that surgery, and partial Achilles tears typically carry a rehab window of three to six months, well short of the roughly year-long absence that follows a full rupture.
Redden stopped short of putting a date on the comeback.
“It wasn’t until we got our hands on (Ingram) here that we started to see where he was at with his progression. He won’t be ready for the start of the season, and we’ll reevaluate when we get there.”
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The injury hidden inside the surgery
The heel issue that ended Ingram’s 2025-26 season for the Toronto Raptors forced him to sit out the final two games of their first-round playoff loss to Cleveland. The surgery that followed in May was pitched at the time as a heel repair, not an Achilles procedure. The partial tear in the tendon was discovered on the operating table and addressed in the same operation.
That detail was not shared publicly until months later, after the Clippers had completed the trade and taken over his medical file. Redden’s framing on Monday was that the team only built a clear view of Ingram’s status once he was in their building.
Ingram, at the Clippers’ media day earlier the same week, kept his own update brief.
“My recovery has been going good. I won’t be participating in training camp much but I will be out there a little bit.”
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A $40m-a-year arrival stuck in rehab
Ingram arrived in Los Angeles as the headline name coming back for Leonard, part of a package that also included Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks, a 2027 first-round pick swap and two second-rounders. The deal, agreed in principle at the end of June, was only finalized on 14 September once the NBA closed its salary-cap investigation into Leonard and the Clippers.
He is in the second year of a three-year, $120m extension signed with Toronto, where he was named an All-Star for the second time in his career last season after averaging 21.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists on 47.7 percent shooting.
For a Clippers front office that gave up Leonard to land him, losing those numbers for the opening weeks of the season leaves a visible hole alongside James Harden in the scoring load the roster has to replace.
Clippers open against the Kings on 21 October
Head coach Tyronn Lue’s team begins the regular season at home against the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday 21 October at Intuit Dome, tipping off at 7:30pm local time. Ingram will not be in uniform, and the Clippers have said only that they will reassess him around the season start to set a return target from there.
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