Doctor Gives Potential Timeline For Jalen Williams’ Return After Scary Ankle Fracture

The Oklahoma City Thunder suffered a heartbreaking setback in their 108-101 win over the Los Angeles Clippers tonight. Jalen Williams appears to have broken his left ankle after a scary fall while driving to the basket with less than two minutes left.

The entire Paycom Center fell silent, leaving everyone in utter dismay and disbelief. They immediately brought a stretcher onto the court as arena staff members began covering Jalen Williams’ foot with towels.

 

Dude what the f–k

— Shabazz (@ShowCaseShabazz) October 26, 2026

Jalen Williams finished with eight points, five assists, and two rebounds, going 3-for-8 from the field (37.5% FG). After the game, Dr. Brian Sutterer, a renowned sports injury physician, reviewed footage of the incident and gave his initial prognosis.

“But basically, what we see happen here with Jalen Williams, the long and short of this is that I’m concerned about an ankle fracture-dislocation. Obviously, anytime somebody is taken off the court on a stretcher, we see the towel thrown over them right away.”

“This is a serious injury. Based on the mechanism of what we’re seeing here, the most likely scenario would be an ankle dislocation, with or without a fracture,” Dr. Sutterer said.

“Very rarely, you can have situations where the ankle dislocates without a fracture. The majority of the time, though, there is an associated fracture.”

“What happens here with Williams is that he’s coming down from this attempt. I guess he’s trying to get a rebound. As he comes down, we see the position of his left leg when he lands.”

“Essentially, his body weight falls onto his left leg, and his left ankle gets stuck in this position, which often leads to, at best, a high ankle sprain. Basically, what happens here is that, as his foot gets trapped and caught underneath him, the ankle is forced into an eversion position.”

“A typical ankle sprain occurs through inversion, when the ankle rolls inward. Eversion is when the ankle rolls the other way, with the inside of the foot moving down toward the court,” he further added about Jalen Williams.

“When he lands on the back outside portion of his ankle and the foot is dorsiflexed, meaning the toes are pulled up toward the shin, that locks and engages the ankle mortise between the talus, the tibia, and the fibula.”

“You combine that with the force of landing on the outside of the foot, whether due to another player or landing on yourself, it causes excessive external rotation and eversion, which ultimately leads to, at a minimum, a dislocation.”

“Most of the time, there is a fracture as well. You can also have the opposite situation, where there’s a fracture without a dislocation. You can have a simple dislocation with no fracture. However, when we see this type of injury, you can generally assume that the ankle is likely dislocated along with having a fracture.”

“When this occurs, we’ll see the foot resting in a position where it’s pointed outward. Here, the foot is pointed out in that externally rotated position. If you look at where his femur and tibia are, everything is pointed roughly 90 degrees away from the direction of his foot.”

“The foot is pointed outward in a 90-degree rotated position; we can even see a little bit of the contour of the lower part of the tibia, the medial malleolus. This position tells you that there has been a serious injury and, as I said, probably a fracture, potentially accompanied by a dislocation,” he adds about Jalen Williams’ injury.

“When the medical staff comes out to attend to him, what they’re trying to do is essentially get his ankle as reduced as possible before putting it in some sort of vacuum splint or Aircast and getting him to the hospital. That’s likely what we’re seeing here.”

“This is probably the team physician down at his foot, trying to perform a reduction. If the joint is out of place, they’re going to try to put it back into position. If it doesn’t appear to be dislocated and there’s just an obvious fracture, they’ll stabilize the fracture with some sort of vacuum splint or Aircast before transporting him to the hospital.”

“The key ligaments involved are going to include, first, the deltoid ligament, which sits on the medial, or inner, part of the ankle. It runs from the medial malleolus, the lower part of the tibia, down primarily to the calcaneus, but also to some bones of the midfoot and the talus.”

“That ligament gets stretched whenever you have forced eversion. As Jalen Williams comes down and lands on the outside of his foot, the ankle moves in this direction. That outward rotation is the eversion. That eversion puts tension on the deltoid ligament, potentially tearing it.”

“As the force continues, you can see disruption of the syndesmosis, the connection between the fibula and the tibia, resulting in an injury similar to a high ankle sprain. When there’s so much force that it continues through the joint, you’ll see this sequential failure, which can then lead to fractures in this area, as well as a dislocation,” Dr. Sutterer said.

“The big question going forward with treatment is what is dislocated and what is fractured. Based on looking at this, I think the concern would be a fracture-dislocation, where the bones have fractured, and the joint is out of place.”

“However, as I said, you can have a fracture without the joint being truly dislocated. Conversely, you can have a simple dislocation without any associated bone injury. The majority of these injuries, regardless of the exact situation involving a dislocation or fracture, are going to result in extensive, multi-month absences.”

“Whether they’re putting hardware in to fix fractures or performing soft-tissue reconstruction on the surrounding ligaments, even if it’s just a simple dislocation, I would fully expect this type of injury to result in a multi-month absence, potentially even lasting the entire season.”

“This is very similar to what we saw happen with Gordon Hayward a number of NBA seasons ago. That’s the sort of time frame I think we have to consider when looking at what we could expect for Jalen Williams’ return.”

“The other big short-term question is whether this is an open fracture, if there’s a fracture at all, or whether it’s closed. A compound fracture is another term for an open fracture. An open, or compound, fracture occurs when the bone breaks through the skin. There’s a tear in the skin, which increases the risk of infection and can complicate the underlying fracture.”

“So, what exactly is done in terms of treating a dislocation or fracture remains to be determined. But think of this as a severe high-ankle-sprain-type injury, one that could result in a multi-month absence and definitely has the potential to be season-ending. Honestly, it could even be a career-altering injury, as we saw someone like Gordon Hayward go through,” Dr. Sutterer concluded.

As a result, Jalen Williams is expected to miss several months, and this injury could also end his season. It’s a tough time for the former NBA champion, who has been plagued by injuries ever since he won the 2024-25 title with the Thunder.

He sat out most of last season while recovering from wrist surgery and a hamstring issue. Now his left ankle has likely sidelined him for another few months.

Jalen Williams’ potential season-ending injury is a devastating blow for the Oklahoma City Thunder’s championship aspirations. With an official diagnosis still pending, the Thunder will anxiously await updates on their star forward’s recovery.