Before the start of the Paris Olympics in July, the Serbian national team suffered a major scare when their young Nikola Jovic fell to injury. The talented forward seemed like he would miss the international competition, but he eventually recovered just in time to join his country and contribute to their bronze medal success.
Now that he achieved what he sought out to during this summer in Europe, the 21-year-old is back in the United States recovering from some pain in his ligaments. The Serbian attended the press through a conference call and talked about his upcoming season, as he’s picked up the fourth year of his contract.
“I would say I’m almost fully healthy. Of course, there’s a little ligament that still needs to be 100 percent. They told me it would take a little bit more time, but it shouldn’t be an issue. Basically, I’m 100 percent,” Nikola told the Miami Herald this week.
Miami Heat’s Nikola Jović eyes full recovery for the start of the 2024/25 #NBA season:
“I’m almost 100 percent healthy”https://t.co/gJtmdaP6hV
— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) September 12, 2024
Jovic recalled arriving to his nation’s training camp still wearing a protective boot, which is why he was only given a minor role inside his coach Svetislav Pesic’s team. “It was not just a normal sprained ankle; it was a small fracture.
“I had MRIs and everything. At that point, they weren’t sure if I would make it to the Olympics. But my biggest goal was just to be there, be with the team, and help them as much as I could,” the Heat star explained.
However, his self esteem was boosted when his coach said he wanted him for the Olympics despite his pains. “We flew to Paris, and I knew I wasn’t in great shape because I hadn’t played in a while. My foot maybe wasn’t ready for a big role, and we knew all that, and the coach understood everything. But he still wanted me to go; he still believed I could help as much as I could, and that’s what I did,” he shared.
Young Nikola then talked about his offseason work in Florida. “We’re making sure that my foot is good after every practice because the injury I had is no joke, and we really don’t want any new problems with it,” he revealed.
Terry Rozier is another Heat player who still isn’t 100% healed, but expects to recover fully before the start of training camp later this month
The Serbian international has already expressed how important it is for him to start camp fully healed. “So during training camp, I wouldn’t say I’m going to sit out or anything, but of course, you want to make sure that everything is good,” he shared this week.
“If something starts hurting by any chance, I’ll probably need to step away. But I don’t think that will be the case, and I’m really looking forward to being 100 percent and giving everything I have,” Jovic concluded.
Terry Rozier is also working hard to recover entirely before the start of the campaign.“I would say not totally fully, fully, fully cleared playing five-on-five,” Rozier said. “But I am doing every on-court activity, playing a little bit three-on-three.
“But I figure in the next couple of weeks I’ll be graduating to five-on-five…I’ve been trying to get back right ever since the season ended. So that required doing little stuff, like if I couldn’t run yet, I was doing bike riding or incline walking and stuff like that. So my condition is pretty good,” the veteran expressed.
