Raymond has done a fantastic job translating this long interview that Yao provided to Titan Sports after it was announced that Yao will miss the rest of the season because of a stress fracture in his left ankle. In this translation, we learn:

– Yao and the Rockets trainer initially thought the pain was because of bone spurs before they started checking it out further
– Maybe the stress fracture started back in November in a game against Dallas
– The injury, and the surgery he’ll have, is very similar to what Zydrunas Ilgauskas had done
– He probably could have only played another 2 or 3 games before the pain would have become unbearable
– He probably won’t return to China until late in the recuperation stage because long flights are not good for his ankle
– Much, much more

In my mind, since Yao says he will only be able to work on his upper body during most of the recuperation period, there might be a bright side to all this. Since it’s doubtful he’ll be 100% when the Olympics start, he will probably work hard so he can improve his jump shooting ability so he can provide sure-fire scoring for the Chinese team during the Olympics.

This potential emphasis on outside shooting might help him score more effectively in the long-run since his outside shooting has dropped off since becoming more of a low-post player.

Thanks for the translation, Raymond!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 3:03 pm and is filed under *Interviews with Yao, Injury and rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.