Joel Embiid injury update: 76ers’ star big man suffers sinus fracture, timeline unclear after latest setback

Joel Embiid suffered a sinus fracture in the Philadelphia 76ers‘ loss to the Indiana Pacers on Friday night, the team has announced. Embiid will be further evaluated this weekend and his “status will be updated as appropriate,” according to PHLY Sports’ Derek Bodner, who detailed some pretty disheartening numbers with regard to the random bad luck of Embiid’s rapidly worsening injury history. 

In particular, it’s these facial fractures that are extremely rare but keep happening to Embiid. Bodner did the research: 

Indeed, Embiid, in between all his other issues, suffered an orbital bone fracture in 2017-18, and then again in Game 6 of Philadelphia’s first-round playoff win over Toronto in 2022. That injury caused him to miss the the first two games of the Sixers’ second-round series vs. Miami that year before he came back in Game 3 wearing a protective mask. 

And now it’s happened again against the Pacers, this time by way of Bennedict Mathurin’s elbow in the waning seconds of the first half. 

Including Friday night, Embiid has played in just six games this season out of a possible 23. He did not debut until Nov. 12 after missing the first nine games of the season with “left knee management”  and a suspension. He appeared in four out of five games in mid-November before missing seven more games in a row. He came back on Sunday against the Bulls and it was the first time the team’s Big Three of Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George all finished a game together.

At this point, if you’re a 76ers fan, it’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry at how poorly this season is going, and bigger picture, how insane the Sixers script is getting. Markelle Fultz forgets how to shoot. Ben Simmons melts down. Bryan Colangelo’s burners. Embiid’s unparalleled susceptibility to face fractures. 

This was supposed to be a season of hope and contention for the Sixers after adding George in the summer. But everything, in the end, still hinges on Embiid and the guy just can’t get (or stay) on the court. 

The Sixers have been extra cautious with Embiid all season as they play the long game of trying to have him healthy for the playoffs, but at 7-16 and currently below the play-in line even in the paltry Eastern Conference, it’s getting to the point where they’re in danger of missing the playoffs if their MVP doesn’t start putting some consistent stretches of games together.