Raymond Brothers, the agent of broken prospect Markelle Fultz, announced that the Philadelphia 76ers guard has been diagnosed with neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The Mayo Clinic characterizes this form of TOS disorder by the “compression of [a] network of nerves that come from your spinal cord and control muscle movements and sensation in your shoulder, arm and hand.” The symptoms all stem from issues within the nervous system and limit the range of motion from that part of one’s body.
Shams Charania reports that it will likely be weeks before Fultz returns to any action. The first-overall pick from 2017 hasn’t played or practiced since Nov. 20 when Brothers announced that Fultz would be seeing shoulder specialists.
It appeared that this ongoing saga had begun to find its conclusion. There was finally an official medical answer as to why Fultz’s shoulder became pure crab meat. But, the reports didn’t stop there. The Philly Inquirer’s Sarah Todd reports that Fultz went to 10 specialists before he was given a recommendation to not play. Charania detailed that he had gone “from Philadelphia to New York to St. Louis and back, from home in Maryland to Los Angeles.” It’s not clear why this diagnosis took so damn long to make, and it remains to be seen whether this news will actually result in meaningful improvement for the future of Fultz’s career.
We will update this post with more information if it becomes available.