Festus Ezeli Will Get Parts of a Cadaver Implanted in His Knee
By Tully Corcoran
The Portland Trailblazers’ Festus Ezeli has been battling a knee woe since 2016, and hasn’t played at all this year. He had arthroscopic knee surgery 13 months ago, and in August had a bone marrow aspirate injection.
Basically the situation is that Ezeli’s knee is all kinds of messed up so now he’s basically going to harvest some knee parts from a cadaver and hope for the best.
ESPN Sources: For months Portland's Festus Ezeli sought a cadaver donor. One recently submitted, thus surgical procedure on knee next week.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) March 5, 2017
Ezeli won’t be the first athlete to try this (Carson Palmer had a similar procedure done in 2006), but it isn’t a common procedure (obviously). He’d been seeking a donor for months, but finding aftermarket body parts for a guy that stands 6-foot-11 proved to be quite a challenge. Ezeli’s search is over now, and he’ll have the procedure next week, ESPN reported.
"Ezeli, who has yet to play a game for the Trail Blazers, will officially miss the entire 2016-17 season after signing a two-year, $15.2 million contract with the organization last offseason."
Recovery could take up to a year.