1:40 pm: Wizards officials expect Sarr to be ready for the start of the NBA regular season, a team source tells Josh Robbins of The Athletic, who adds (via Twitter) that the injury won’t require surgery.
11:31 am: Wizards center Alex Sarr, who had been competing for France in this year’s EuroBasket tournament, has been ruled out for the rest of the event due to a right calf injury, according to an official announcement from the national team.
Translated from French, the statement indicates that Sarr’s “healing time is incompatible with (his) participation for the rest of the competition.”
Sarr injured his calf during Saturday’s victory over Slovenia and was held out of Sunday’s loss to Israel as a result of the ailment. He’ll also miss Tuesday’s matchup with Poland and Thursday’s contest against Iceland, as well as any games in the round of 16, assuming France advances.
With a 2-1 record so far, France is well-positioned to make the single-elimination portion of the tournament with a win in either of its two remaining group-stage games. However, the team’s frontcourt – which was already without Rudy Gobert, Victor Wembanyama, and Mathias Lessort for EuroBasket – has now taken another hit, putting increased pressure on Guerschon Yabusele and Zaccharie Risacher to lead the way up front.
While it’s unclear if Sarr’s availability for training camp will be compromised by his calf injury, it sounds like the recovery period could be measured in weeks rather than days. The Wizards’ camp will get underway in about four weeks, with the regular season opener still more than seven weeks out, so hopefully that will be enough time for Sarr to get back to 100%.
Last year’s No. 2 overall pick, Sarr earned All-Rookie first team honors after averaging 13.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.5 blocks in 27.1 minutes per game. Shooting efficiency figures to be an area of focus for the 20-year-old in year two after he made just 39.4% of his field goals and 67.9% of his free throws as a rookie.