NBA

Knicks’ Thomas hoping foot injury heals by playoffs

Kurt Thomas said he feels there is a “50-50’’ chance he will make his return by the playoffs, confirming that an old stress fracture on his right foot got reaggravated on the West Coast trip.

“I had a stress fracture in 2006-007 when I played for Phoenix,’’ Thomas said. “I thought it healed. I had played with it six years straight and come to find out it never completely healed.’’

The Knicks said Tuesday Thomas will miss two to four weeks with an acute stress reaction to his chronic stress fracture.

”We’ll see,’’ Thomas said, regarding if he will return within a month. “I’ll continue to try to get the swelling out of the foot. We’ll see if I could come back and reduce the pain. It’s 50-50, at least. I think that’s a good number. I still would love to play.’’

Knicks coach Mike Woodson opened the door to the possibility that the heroic 26 minutes Thomas played Monday in Utah may have done more damage to his right foot after he was initially diagnosed with a bone spur in a pregame X-ray.

“By me playing, it didn’t make the injury worse,’’ Thomas said before the Knicks’ 106-94 victory over the Magic Wednesday night at the Garden. “I don’t think so. I wanted to go out and help my guys out and get off the slide.’’

The Knicks were hopeful Thomas’ discomfort was caused by the bone spur, but Thomas knew it might be that old stress fracture resurfacing.

“I kind of sensed it from the very beginning,” Thomas said. “I felt that pain years ago. I was hoping it would turn out something different. When I felt it injured in Portland game [Thursday], I had that same feeling before.’’

When asked about increasing Marcus Camby’s minutes in the wake of his bout with plantar fasciitis, Woodson said he will play it cautiously.

“We still have to be careful with [Marcus],” he said. “Kurt’s minutes go to 26 and, boom, we don’t have him. … I just can’t blow these guys out in one game.’’

Thomas said bone stimulation and a large intake of Vitamin D will be the course of treatment and he’ll be tested every two weeks.

* Woodson said the Knicks aren’t hurrying to sign a D-League big man as they are committed to trying to rehab Thomas and Rasheed Wallace. But that could change if Wallace, in particular, doesn’t progress and Tyson Chandler doesn’t come back 100 percent from his bulging disk in his spine. Wallace just had stitches removed from his foot.

“We feel it’s possible they’ll be back around playoff time,’’ Woodson said. “They’re under contract. We have to invest time in getting them back on the floor. We’ll have a better feel where they are in the next couple of weeks.’’

marc.berman@nypost.com