How long does it take to heal a sprained MCL?

How long does it take to recover from a sprained MCL?

Injuries are a part of sports, and even the best payers in the world can’t keep their bodies completely healthy all of the time. We’ve seen players in peak physical condition suffer fluke injuries that come out of nowhere and are completely unpredictable — like on Sunday night when the Warriors have probably lost Steph Curry after he slipped on a wet spot on the court against Houston.

Curry sprained his MCL, which wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened to him but is still something that will require him to miss significant time in the postseason.

An MCL sprain is still serious but it’s lower on the totem ole of things that could have happened and been so much worse. Curry could have tore his MCL, which would have been much worse — and then there’s the always feared ACL tear. An ACL tear is the worst thing that can happen when we’re talking about recovery time, but an MCL sprain isn’t anything you can skip around with.

The usual recovery time for a sprained MCL is 3-6 weeks, which places Curry’s return time between May 16th to May 30th. The Warriors won’t need him to beat the Rockets and probably won’t need him to finish the Clippers off in a series. Curry is going to be needed in the Conference Finals and eventually the NBA Finals, and the max recovery time lines up with this trajectory.

Of course, that doesn’t mean he’ll sit out the max duration, as playoff basketball is something that no star wants to be out of action for too long during.

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