Heat hopes Herro (foot) can return before end of the regular season
Heat guard Tyler Herro’s return isn’t imminent, but there’s hope that he’ll be able to return before the end of the regular season.
Herro, who has missed the last 10 games, received a a platelet-rich plasma injection Friday to treat his right foot and will be re-evaluated in one to two weeks, according to league sources.
Herro, whose injury is listed as medial tendinitis, is not on the Heat’s trip, which goes through Wednesday. His foot pain hasn’t subsided, and the decision was made to use a
PRP injection to help speed recovery.
According to Yale Medicine: “PRP is a therapy produced from the patient’s own blood that is made up of plasma and a high concentration of platelets. It is injected into the injured area, thereby introducing a high concentration of platelets (as well as growth factors and cytokines) to the injury site, helping it heal.”
During this 10-game absence, Herro also dealt with a hyperextended left knee that he has since recovered from. The foot issue popped up during the All-Star break.
Herro, 24, has started in each of his 36 appearances this season. He’s averaging career highs in points (20.8) and assists (4.4).
Following this current four-game trip, the Heat has just 13 regular-season games left.
The Heat also remains without backup center Kevin Love, who did not travel with the team to Detroit for the start of the trip. He has missed eight straight games because of a bruised right heel but is making progress in his recovery.
BUTLER, JOVIC HURT
The Heat also has new injuries to monitor, with starters Jimmy Butler and Nikola Jovic added to the injury report for Sunday’s rematch at Detroit.
Butler (right foot contusion) is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game. His foot was stepped on during Friday’s win over the Pistons but he finished the game.
The right foot was also an issue for Butler earlier this season. He he missed seven straight games in January because of a right toe MP joint sprain.
Jovic has been ruled out for Sunday’s game because of a strained right hamstring that he sustained in Friday’s game. He had started 12 games in a row.
The Heat (36-30) entered Saturday in seventh place in the Eastern Conference in a tightly packed playoff race to avoid the play-in tournament, which features the seventh- through 10th-place teams competing for the final two playoffs seeds in each conference.