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Phoenix Suns guard Isaiah Canaan suffers gruesome leg injury while driving to rim

From NBA Twitter and media reports

Phoenix Suns guard Isaiah Canaan suffered a gruesome left leg injury while driving to the rim during Wednesday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks.

Canaan landed awkwardly on his ankle and stayed on the floor in pain with his foot pointing in the wrong direction. There were groans from the crowd and looks of shock from his teammates as trainers rushed to him.

Scott Bordow of azcentral.com reported the bone was protruding out of Canaan’s skin.

Canaan was carted off the court on a stretcher and diagnosed with a fractured ankle an fibula. Suns coach Jay Triano said Canaan will have surgery on Thursday.

“It’s so disappointing,” Triano said. “I feel bad for the kid.”

Triano called a timeout following the injury to try to get his team to re-focus.

“It’s hard for fans and everyone sitting right there and teammates especially, a guy they battle with every day, it’s their friend on and off the court,” he said. “I used the timeout to let us say a quick prayer. … Not much we can do. He was in the hands of our medical staff and we trust they do their job and we had to keep doing ours.”

…

“Seeing your brother and teammate get hurt like that, I honestly didn’t want to watch,” Marquese Chriss said. “I tried to turn around, I tried to turn some people around before people saw what was actually happening.”

Chriss said Triano told the players during the timeout that Canaan would have wanted the Suns to play well and secure the win.

“Everybody was kind of feeling emotional about it, just sitting on the bench and thinking about it,” Chriss said. “It was hard to move past something like that. But that was something we had to do.”

During his five-year career, Canaan has played for the Houston Rockets, Philadelphia 76ers, Chicago Bulls and Suns. He was signed Dec. 13 after being waived by Houston in October.

Teammates and players from around the league offered prayers and support to Canaan on social media:

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