ESPN News Services
Nov 9, 2024, 02:32 PM ET
New Orleans Pelicans star forward Zion Williamson has been diagnosed with a left hamstring strain and is out indefinitely, the team announced Saturday.
Williamson is expected to miss several weeks, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania.
The Pelicans said medical imaging taken Saturday morning confirmed the injury.
Williamson suffered the injury in the second quarter of the Pelicans’ loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, checking himself out of the game before returning to score 23 points in the second half. He didn’t play in Friday’s loss to the Orlando Magic, his fourth missed game of the season.
The injury is a devastating blow for the Pelicans and Williamson, who team officials believe has been in the best shape of his career.
Since the Pelicans selected Williamson first overall out of Duke in the 2019 draft, the 6-foot-6, 284-pound power forward has missed 210 out of a possible 400 regular-season games.
Williamson’s injury is the latest for a struggling Pelicans team that was missing six of its top eight scorers, including Dejounte Murray, Trey Murphy III, CJ McCollum and Jordan Hawkins, against the Magic. Forward Herb Jones has also been out of the lineup due to a shoulder injury.
The Pelicans, who have lost four in a row and seven of their past eight games, are off until Monday, when they host the Brooklyn Nets.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.