MANILA –San Miguel Beermen (SMB) star
center June Mar Fajardo of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) continues
to heal from his shin injury.
According to Fajardo in an interview with ‘2OT’ sports blog on April 19, his
shin, who he injured during an offseason practice with SMB, continues to heal
and he hopes to walk fully sans the use of crutches soon. The center is indefinitely
out of the 2020 PBA Season.
“I can now walk. I think I can put 70 or 80 percent of my weight on my
foot. Maybe next month, I can walk without crutches or walkers,” he said.
The Cebuano big man, a six-time PBA MVP awardee, also narrated the origin of his shin injury, which he first aggravated with a stress fracture that kept him out of action in 2018.
“It was back in 2018, during the All-Filipino conference. I think I took an accidental kick and then it bruised. But I played through it,” said Fajardo. “It hurt, but I really didn’t think of it. In the third conference, it felt really painful. So I had it checked, and they saw that hairline fracture.”
His busy schedule with the Beermen and also his international fixtures with Gilas Pilipinas contributed to the fracture.
“I was really sad. I couldn’t sleep for a while and I thought about what happened. But if you think about it, I’ve achieved a lot. This is what I got now in exchange for that success – a year of rest. I just need to be positive. If we think about the negative, we’ll attract the negative,” Fajardo said.
“It’s not the end of my career. I’ll be able to return and at the same time be able to rest my whole body too. The one year I won’t be able to play probably won’t be that long. I still have years ahead of me,” he added./PN
