LeBron’s actual injury timeline for the Lakers may be 4-8 weeks

The Los Angeles Lakers remain vague about when LeBron James will return while the Lakers’ former head strength and conditioning coach offers a timeline.

As the Lakers struggle through their season without LeBron James, Lakers fans have been awaiting any indication of when the future Hall of Famer might return.

Finally, a tentative timeline has been released — but it wasn’t from the Lakers themselves.

Instead, the projected injury return timeline came from Tim DiFrancesco, the Lakers’ former head strength and conditioning coach. In an Instagram post shared on Nov. 7,  DiFrancesco detailed how James’ injury likely occurred, as well as the usual timeline for this type of injury while also speaking with Bill Oram of The Athletic.

LeBron James could be out 4-8 weeks, according to former Lakers trainer

With the abdominal strain, which DiFrancesco noted may not have occurred “at an acute moment” but may have developed into a “more severe strain”, that LeBron James could be out for 4-8 weeks.

Noting how power dunks can cause an abdominal strain, DiFrancesco said that it would be “tough” to think that James could be back on the floor for the Lakers in under four weeks. The crux of that argument is the fact that, though they can feel better with rest and pain relief, there is a high risk of re-injuring the same abdominal muscles if a player comes back too quickly.

If James misses at least one month, his RA strain will rank third-worst among his career injuries in terms of games missed. The other two have occurred during the last three seasons, a saddening indication that the 36-year-old is not immune to Father Time’s cruel tricks.