Philadelphia 76ers coach Nick Nurse expressed optimism about Joel Embiid’s return to action, saying his recent sinus fracture is “not nearly as severe” as the two previous facial fractures sustained by the 2023 NBA Most Valuable Player in his career.

Embiid was injured in the first half of Friday night’s 121-107 loss to the Indiana Pacers when he was hit in the face by Bennedict Mathurin while going for a defensive rebound.

The 76ers said Embiid will be reevaluated in one week.

Embiid will not play Monday night against the Charlotte Hornets.

“The only thing that I can compare it to, but I wasn’t here, but he certainly had those other ones that were a lot worse,” Nurse said before the Hornets game. “It’s not nearly as severe as those two from what they tell me. So I guess that’s good because those were pretty tough — those two — and they say it’s not as bad as that.”

In 2018, Embiid fractured his left orbital bone and sustained a concussion when he collided with teammate Markelle Fultz, sidelining him for the final eight games of the regular season and the first two games of the 2018 NBA Playoffs.

In April 2022, Embiid caught an elbow from Pascal Siakam in Philadelphia’s series-clinching Game 6 win, causing him to fracture his right orbital and forcing the seven-time All-Star to miss the first two games of the Eastern Conference Semifinals with the injury.

Embiid has played in just six games this season due to knee soreness and is averaging just 20.3 points per game for the 76ers (7-16), well below his career average.

“Listen, it’s hard enough for him to get himself ready to go,” Nurse added. “The knee after the surgery and all that stuff is enough to focus on. This isn’t going to help his ability to condition. He’s going to have to recover from some of this stuff — the breathing isn’t going to be easy for a little bit, so obviously it makes it really difficult. … He’s just going to have to deal with it. Hopefully he’s getting all of these little things out of the way so he can focus on his recovery of the knee and get back out there for a stretch of games.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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