CHICAGO (670 The Score) – Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu will undergo left shoulder surgery Wednesday to repair what he called “a fracture in the back of my shoulder.”
The Bulls on Sunday announced the 25-year-old Dosunmu will have surgery and miss the remainder of the season. Before the Bulls hosted the Cavaliers on Tuesday evening, Dosunmu addressed an injury that has a bit of mystery around it.
Neither Dosunmu nor the Bulls are sure exactly when he first suffered the injury, but the MRI he had over the weekend indicated that it originally happened “within the last year or year-and-a-half,” Dosunmu said. He then aggravated the injury in the Bulls’ loss to the Knicks on Feb. 20. In the past when he dealt with this shoulder ailment, which he called a "stinger," the pain would disappear in a day or two. This time, the pain stayed for longer.
Dosunmu missed the Bulls’ ensuing three games before returning to score 11 points in a win against the Raptors on Friday, but he still felt discomfort.
“It was tolerable pain, but it was pain that had to be addressed,” Dosunmu said. “Talking to the doctors over time, it felt like eventually I would have to come across that path of having surgery. So I technically could’ve played through the season, but it would’ve been a tit-for-tat thing, in and out, in and out, you never know when the shoulder could’ve popped up. So I just thought it was the best to fix it (now).”
Dosunmu averaged 12.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in 30.3 minutes across 46 games this season, including 26 starts. He shot 49.2% overall and 32.8% on 3-pointers. He was the Bulls' best weapon in transition and a big reason they were one of the fastest-paced teams in the NBA.
Dosunmu expects to be ready for the start of training camp next September, and the Bulls believe the decision to have surgery now rather than after the conclusion of this season will put him in line to be healthy by then. Dosunmu
called it a “four-to-six-month recovery process,” with a return to on-court non-contact work likely coming around four months and full-contact five-on-five likely coming around the six-month mark. That six-month timeline would mark a few weeks before the start of Bulls training camp.
Dosunmu was asked it he thought, upon reflection, whether it was “crazy” that he played through the left shoulder injury this season.
“I wouldn’t say it’s crazy, but it is kind of bizarre, I would say, just knowing that there’s a fracture there,” Dosunmu said. “But I wouldn’t say it’s crazy. Because it was something that I played on and I think I could’ve continued to play on. But I don’t know for what reason, the last time I think it probably knocked it out in a different way because it was a different pain that I previously felt.”
Dosunmu knows he has a long, tedious rehab process awaiting him. He plans to find a new hobby, read more and “get connected to the Lord more” during the process.
“Try to find light out of the situation,” he said.
Dosunmu is in the second season of a three-year, $21-million contract, so he’s set to enter the final year of his contract coming off a major injury. Despite that, he expressed no concern about how his shoulder injury will affect his professional career or next contract.
“It excites me,” Dosunmu said. “I thrive in situations like that. I thrive in adversity and proving people wrong, whoever the doubters may be. That’s something I’ve always thrived on and I always seemed to enjoy that type of competition. So I’m excited for the rehab process. Like I said, taking it one day at a time. I’m excited to do that. I’m just looking at it as a blessing in disguise.”
Cody Westerlund is an editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.