Robert Covington spoke to the media today on Tuesday for the first time in a while. It’s been a tough few weeks for Covington as he fights to return to the floor after suffering a bone bruise on New Year’s Eve but his rehab is progressing well. He’s been doing some shooting, participating in a few drills and spending more time with the team.
“Our progression rate has been really tremendous. While guys were on the road trip I had tremendous strides… Doing a lot more running, more stuff on the AlterG treadmill, just to get back mobility and get back kind of into a groove. Getting out here shooting with the guys things are starting to show.”
It’s not an easy thing to stay patient with an injury like a bone bruise that has no single hard and fast path to recovery. However, Covington is working to stay focused and to not rush things. With an injury like this it’s imperative that he be 100 percent ready to return before he plays in another game.
“It’s a grind. It’s part of it. You got to stay focused, you can’t get discouraged,” he said. “The minute you start getting discouraged that’s when you’re not focusing on what you have to do to try and get back and your recovery time is a lot longer. You got to be locked in.”
Covington is still taking things one day at a time. An injury that keeps a player out this long is difficult—there’s more to do than just heal. Being away from the intensity of the NBA game for a prolonged period inevitably leads to some rust.
“After being out so long it feels kind of weird just training your body back to doing the things it was doing before,” he said. “But right now it’s progressing really well. It feels good to be out here getting up and down a little bit with the guys on certain drills. Just got to keep taking it day by day.”