{"id":76149,"date":"2025-12-08T22:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T22:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/76149\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T22:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T22:27:10","slug":"magics-franz-wagner-avoids-major-injury-will-miss-time-with-high-ankle-sprain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/76149\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic\u2019s Franz Wagner avoids major injury, will miss time with high-ankle sprain"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 To say that the Orlando Magic are breathing a gargantuan collective sigh of relief right now would be an understatement.<\/p>\n

The Magic announced that an MRI conducted Monday revealed that the left leg injury Franz Wagner suffered Sunday<\/a> at Madison Square Garden is a high-ankle sprain \u2014 and not an injury to knee ligaments or tendons.<\/p>\n

High-ankle sprains can take weeks or months to heal, and the Magic are not publicly putting a timeline<\/a> on Wagner\u2019s expected recovery, in accordance with team policies related to player injuries. But team officials are thankful that Wagner, a 24-year-old wing\/forward who was a potential All-Star candidate, won\u2019t be sidelined for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

Wagner is one of the key two-way players in the Eastern Conference, if not the league, averaging 22.7 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game and playing active defense for one of the NBA\u2019s best teams on that end of the court.<\/p>\n

When Wagner landed awkwardly on his left leg following a lob attempt on Sunday afternoon, it looked worrisome enough that, at first, it would have been easy to conclude his season could be over. That would have essentially derailed Orlando\u2019s hopes for a top-four finish in the East and raised the likelihood of a first-round playoff exit.<\/p>\n

But X-rays taken at Madison Square Garden ruled out any fractures, a team official told The Athletic. A preliminary examination by a medical doctor on site left Magic officials hopeful that Wagner had not sustained a serious injury. Monday\u2019s MRI revealed the high-ankle sprain.<\/p>\n

The Magic have not revealed the severity of the high-ankle sprain, but the possibility has been raised that similar high-ankle sprains have taken two to four weeks to heal<\/a>. But Orlando now has reasons for optimism. Former All-Star forward Paolo Banchero returned recently from a 10-game absence because of a groin strain. Guard Jalen Suggs has started to knock off the rust from his knee surgery late last season. Third-year guard Anthony Black has made strides. And shooting guard Desmond Bane, the team\u2019s key offseason addition, started to look more comfortable on offense in the games before Banchero\u2019s return. Moe Wagner, the Magic\u2019s former sixth man who is recovering from an ACL tear from a year ago, continues to make progress in his recovery.<\/p>\n

The Magic are in fifth place in the East at 14-10. Franz Wagner\u2019s absence likely will hurt, perhaps enough to derail the Magic\u2019s hopes of hosting a first-round playoff series. But the team appears to be better positioned to withstand a lengthy absence than it was a year ago, when Banchero and both Wagners missed extended stretches due to injuries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 To say that the Orlando Magic are breathing a gargantuan collective sigh of relief right…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1475,2295,139,141,1239,140],"class_list":{"0":"post-76149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-fantasy-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-magic","13":"tag-orlando-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}