NEW ORLEANS — Zion Williamson's return to the court for a regular season game took another detour in the wrong direction Thursday.
Williamson was expected back at practice but he did not participate after feeling some soreness in his injured foot, according to ESPN's Andrew Lopez, and later confirmed by coach Willie Green.
Williamson fractured his right foot in the offseason and at the team's preseason media day it was strongly hinted that it was a minor setback and that he would be in place when the regular season started.
Now, 24 games later, Zion appears to be agonizingly close to returning, but, he hasn't even participated in a full practice and it may take a couple of weeks of that to get him back into game shape.
When and if Zion will play in the 2021-22 season is one of the biggest mysteries in the league, but almost all the news coming out since media day has not been good.
Green did say that the club was optimistic that this soreness was just a temporary setback.
"It's part of a process," he said Thursday. "When you're dealing with injuries and you ramp up, there's a possibility you can get a little soreness. We're very optimistic. Hopefully the soreness goes away in a few days and he can get back to working."
Without Williamson the Pelicans have limped to a 6-18 start, though the team has won a few games recently, which provided optimism, even more so with the anticipated return of Williamson, which, may now be a Christmas wish.
