Bulls' Ball reveals he received rare meniscus transplant from donor - ESPN

Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball, who has not played in an NBA game since Jan. 2022, spoke Friday of his way back from knee issues over the past two years and said part of the recovery involved undergoing a meniscus transplant from a donor.

Speaking on his podcast, "<a href=«https://twitter.com/TheWAEShow/status/1794037972737884270?ref_src=» https:>The WAE Show

," Ball said his issues dated back to the first time he tore his meniscus in 2018 when he was a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. After suffering recurring injuries to his left knee, Ball said he eventually had no more cartilage left in his knee and needed a transplant meniscus procedure performed last year. It was done at the same time he had a cartilage transplant performed in the same knee.

«There was no more meniscus left and bone on bone was rubbing,» Ball said. «The cartilage was gone and the bone was messed up so I had to get a new meniscus from a donor. I had to get a bone allograft and I had to get some new cartilage put in as well.»

After spending more than a year seeing specialists trying to properly identify the issue in his knee, Ball underwent cartilage transplant surgery in March 2023, a third surgery on his left knee in the span of a year. Both Ball and the Bulls said at the time they believed this surgery would give Ball, 26, the best chance to return to the court again in the future and ruled him out of this most recent season in June.

«We were trying to figure out what the problem was so that was a wasted year,» Ball said on the podcast.

Although Ball missed the entire 2023-24 season, he has been able to progress in his rehab without feeling the same discomfort he had in the past doing basic drills such as running. Earlier this month, he posted a