Sixers' Lonnie Walker IV talks concussion recovery, goals for final 9 games

USA Today

28-03-2025

Sixers' Lonnie Walker IV talks concussion recovery, goals for final 9 games
CAMDEN, N.J. -- The Philadelphia 76ers were hit with another injury recently when Lonnie Walker IV took a hard fall in a March 12 matchup with the Toronto Raptors. Early in the contest, Walker went up for a rebound and fell hard with his head smacking the floor leaving the game and not returning.
He was then diagnosed with a concussion and missed the next four games. He did make a brief return against the San Antonio Spurs on March 21 while playing 11 minutes, but he was experiencing headaches so the Sixers pulled him and he has missed three games since.
Back as a full participant in practice on Friday, Walker discussed his concussion recovery.
"Much better as of right now," said Walker. "I'm feeling good. I had my first full practice, so just happy to be back on the floor playing with my teammates."
The concussion protocol is there to make sure the player is completely healed before making a return to the floor. Concussions are no joke and one shouldn't play with head injuries so Walker and the Sixers needed to tread carefully.
"Just ramp up as far as, like, conditioning, seeing how the head works, as far as, how does it feel after, on court stuff, how does it feel the next day?" Walker explained. "Do you have headaches still? Just seeing if you're still weary of, like, the concussion things, but really just being on court, seeing how it feels and go from there."
As far as the Spurs game is concerned, he was cleared for a return, but another headache just popped up. Therefore, he just wanted to go the careful route in his recovery.
"This is my first concussion, so I don't really know as far as the protocol," Walker said of the Spurs game. "I mean, the league approved it. I felt fine. I felt good, as far as going into the game, but it was my first time actually being around the lights and noises and the stimulation of the whole game. So, I felt a small little headache and things of that nature, and we decided that it was best to just figure it out and rest from there."
Walker began the 2024-25 season overseas. This time away from the floor has thrown a wrench into him earning a new opportunity and such going forward. That's why these final nine games are going to be important for him to get that time on the floor.
"Very important," Walker finsihed. "I mean, usually with certain injuries, you can kind of thug it out. I guess you could say, you know, if you have, like, a contusion or something, you could play through it, but it was just my luck that I kind of got a concussion. You can't put Icy Hot on your brain. So these next nine games are very important just to continue to showcase my ability, my game, and see what's next from there."