Kevin Ware, the Bronx-born and raised basketball standout whose right leg was gruesomely snapped on national television Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis, has begun on the road to recovery.
The first step for the Louisville sophomore guard, who was walking around on crutches in his Indianapolis hospital room yesterday, was thanking everyone for their concern.
“I’ve never had this much support in my life,” Ware, who received phone calls from Charles Barkley and Dwight Howard, among others, told the Louisville-Courier Journal. “Like, I’m just so grateful for it, you know?”
Ware sustained a compound fracture in his right tibia during the first half of top seed Louisville’s 85-63 rout of second-seeded Duke in the Midwest Regional final.
He underwent successful surgery Sunday night as doctors reset the bone and inserted a rod, and is being monitored to make sure there’s no infection.
Ware, who left The Bronx when his parents split up prior to high school, has handled the injury better than his parents, Lisa Junior and Kevin Ware Sr., his father joked. When he saw his son writhing in pain on the court, Ware Sr. told The Post he nearly had a heart attack.
“The way he’s handling it is baffling to me because every few minutes I break down thinking about it,” Ware Sr. said. It may not take nearly as long as initially thought, said Dr. David Helfet, Director of Orthopedic Trauma Service at the Hospital for Special Surgery.
“The bone should heal fully in three to four months,” Dr. Helfet said. “It is a devastating injury to look at, but the actual fact is that if it doesn’t get infected, the prognosis of this is better than tearing the ligaments in your knee. I would think in six months he will be able to play basketball.”
Ware is expected to return to Louisville today and travel with his teammates to Atlanta tomorrow for the Final Four.