The Bobcats announced on Friday that Sean May will miss the 2007-08 season after he has microfracture surgery on his right knee. May spoke to the media at Bobcats training camp in Wilmington, North Carolina, shortly after Friday's announcement.

May’s initial reaction to the news he would need surgery:
I was told by every doctor that if I have to have it done, now is the perfect time. If I waited, the injury could get worse, and the likelihood of coming back from it was slimmer. For me, it’s a terrible position only playing in 50-some games in two years, and now I have to sit out another full season. I just have to look at the bright side that hopefully after this procedure there will be no more issues with this right knee, and I can go on and have the career I’ve always dreamed of having while playing in this league.

On his feelings right now:
It’s extremely frustrating. Anybody who knows me knows that all I’ve talked about for the last seven months is getting my knee healthy, getting back in shape and being able to play. I was already at a disadvantage because up until three weeks prior to camp, I had not touched a basketball other than spot shooting. That was part of the rehab, that I wasn’t able to do a lot of court work. I still stayed in shape and was mentally prepared for what it would take to get through camp. I felt like my knee was going to be fine, and we had a routine MRI and saw this piece of cartilage. I’ve done everything that I possibly can to get ready and get my knee prepared. We took a conservative approach, and I was aggressive at times, so it’s extremely frustrating. It’s hard to sit, and that’s the reason that I didn’t come down to training camp. It would have just broke me down. In three years, I’ve had to sit out two training camps, and this is just hard. It really is.

On how much more motivated he will be to come back stronger:
The way I keep looking at it is that it gives me a year to prepare and get my body in great shape. When I broke my foot in college, I came back better. When I had my first two surgeries in the league, I came back better. This is all I know how to do. It fuels my fire, but it’s tough. It really is. I told everybody on the Bobcats staff that I just wanted to get it done so I could start the rehab process, spend the two weeks on the crutches to get back to working out and doing what I love to do and then to get back on the court. I’m going to be back. I’m going to be fine. This is just a little setback. It’s part of my nature to overcome this. It’s more adversity. I’ve had to really tough years in this league as far as dealing with injuries and adversity and have never blamed anybody, never blamed myself and never pointed a finger. It’s something that I have to do, and I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. There have been other guys that have come back from this who have dedicated themselves, and you’ve seen that.

On what the recovery period entails:
I talked to a couple of guys who have had it done. I called Jason Kidd, and he hasn’t got back to me yet. Jerry Stackhouse had something similar done. Rashad McCants had it done last year. The rehab isn’t as vigorous as everybody thinks. It’s just so slow, and you just have to take your time and you have to do it every day. This is everything that the doctors have told me, to players who have had it done. They just said you have to make sure you do the rehab. So I’ll have the surgery, and it’s not a long procedure – it takes about 15 minutes. They go in and drill two or three small holes to let the blood come to the surface, and then the scar tissue will take the place of the cartilage that’s missing on the bone. I’ll be on crutches for two to two-and-a-half months because they want to be extra-careful with me. They’ll put me in a motion machine to move my leg up and down, and I’ll be in that for six to eight hours each day. After that, it’s just re-gaining the strength. I won’t be back on the court for at least four to six months, even to do shooting.

On if he was surprised when the MRI revealed this:
It came out of nowhere. Everything started to get better and I started to do some court work. I worked out one day for an hour-and-a-half and the next day there was a little bit of swelling – not very much pain, just a little bit of swelling. So I went on anti-inflammatories for a period of two weeks and I felt fine. I was playing pickup games and felt great. That’s what made me think, “Camp is around the corner and I’m going to be fine.” I went to New York for the rookie transition and ran out of anti-inflammatories. I called back home and talked to the doc and he said we were going to have an MRI just to make sure everything was okay. I thought the swelling came from flying back and forth a couple of times to New York. We got the MRI and doc called me into his office and said this was the situation I was faced with. He could see the piece of cartilage, and it’s really small – like the tip of your pinky finger, like 5mm long. This stinks. I didn’t expect it. It came out of nowhere, and that was probably the most shocking thing. I was on Cloud 9 and thought I was finally starting to come back, and then boom, I’m back to square one, sitting out again.

On his concern that there have been players who have struggled to come back from this:
I’m definitely concerned. If I told you I wasn’t, I would be lying. You see the guys – Anfernee Hardaway was out a couple years, Darius Miles is just now starting to come back, Allan Houston too. But the difference between me and those guys is that they were a lot older, and the older you are, the harder it is to come back from. Every doctor I’ve seen said the way my body is aligned, it’s better for me because I’m not knock-kneed, so I’m not standing on that one surface. That’s why I don’t have very much pain from day-to-day. A lot of guys have pain every day walking around. My pain only comes when I work out for a couple of hours. I am concerned, but at the same time, I know guys who have come back from it. Every doctor I’ve seen says I have a great chance to come back from this. I’m just going to use this as an opportunity to look at the bright side and come back as the player that I always thought I should and could be in this league.

On if there is no other way to treat this:
The doctors have done their part in treating this conservatively… microfracture is the new ACL. A couple years ago, guys were so scared of ACL injuries because a lot of guys didn’t come back from them. Now, it’s a relatively short rehab process – only a few months. Now, microfracture is the thing that is going to keep you out a very long time. That’s what I didn’t want. This is actually my only option. If I choose to play basketball ever again, then I have to get this done. I’ve told everybody that I’ve seen that not playing basketball isn’t an option. I’ll go out there and play tomorrow if they told me it wouldn’t get worse, but it would and would be extremely hard to come back from. It was a difficult decision. I struggled with it for the past week as soon as I found out that this might be the scenario – to miss another season. I will be back. I’ll be back, I’ll be strong and I’ll be fine. It’s just going to take a year.