Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard will miss the remainder of the NBA season, the team confirmed on Monday.
This news comes despite Lillard progressing well through the reconditioning phase of his rehabilitation, following successful surgery in January to repair a lingering abdominal injury.
Lillard has met “several key performance benchmarks” and will continue end-stage rehabilitation over the next few weeks, the team added.
The 31-year-old first missed a game this season due to the injury in November and also missed game time in December as a consequence. The team officially called it lower abdominal tendinopathy.
In 29 games this season, Lillard averaged 24.0 points, 7.3 assists and 4.1 rebounds while shooting 40.2 per cent from the floor.
Three and a half games outside a play-in place in the Western Conference, the 12th-placed Trail Blazers are 26-44 on the year and 14-27 without Lillard.