Last week, after more than a month's break, Joffrey Lauvergne came back to the Zalgiris Kaunas facilities. The French big man returned to his teammates in Kaunas following shoulder surgery and the first part of his rehabilitation in France.
Lauvergne had to leave his teammates beyond landing awkwardly on the floor and suffering a shoulder injury during the EuroLeague Round 2 game against Zenit Saint Petersburg.
After returning to Lithuania to continue rehab, Lauvergne talked to Rytis Kazlauskas of Zalgiris Insider and shared his thoughts regarding the desire to return to the court and the ongoing rehabilitation process.
"I missed everything - being in a team between guys, playing. I knew I wouldn’t be able to play for a while and would have to get used to it, but missing my teammates is something else.
I am glad to be back and I am already starting to train in order to gain and maintain form, I will use this time meaningfully," said the Frenchman. "Mobility and agility are increasing every week, currently the right and left sides are moving almost identically, only a lack of strength. Its recovery is the second part of rehabilitation, so everything is normal.
Before I left France, I had an appointment with a surgeon. He was pleased with the current situation and said that things are going well."
The basketball player underwent surgery in his homeland to strengthen the injured shoulder area. So far, Lauvergne cannot work in the gym to strengthen his body. This will require a green light from the specialists in France, who performed the operation.
"In about three weeks, about 2 months after the surgery, they will do a scan on a bone. They took part of the bone to move it forward. This scan needs to be done to see if everything is healing well.
If so, I will start the body strengthening process in the next four weeks after the results, and I will be able to play again in three months. So I could come back around the end of January," said Lauvergne.
Even unable to play basketball, the center rushes to the court and trusts the experts' words. According to the basketball player himself, the injury, he has experienced, is familiar to rugby players, so he can rely on their experience, going back to professional sports.
"The place, where I had surgery, is the best shoulder injury clinic in France, and this surgeon performs a lot of operations on rugby players - it's a common setback for them.
And the players are allowed to play after 3 months, so trust me, if the rugby players compete after 3 months, I should play too," he spoke to Zalgiris Insider.
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