Wall: Heel surgery will reduce chance of tearing Achilles

Washington Wizards point guard John Wall met with reporters Monday, two days after opting to have season-ending surgery to remove bone spurs from his left heel. He said the decision had to be made to lessen the chance of tearing his Achilles tendon.

"If I don't want to deal with the pain or make it any worse and have an opportunity to maybe rupture my whole Achilles' later down the road, you get the surgery and take it out," Wall said, according to the Washington Post's Candace Buckner.

"Some days it would be terrible where you couldn't play or could barely walk. So it's not really a hard decision for me to make. It was an easy decision," he continued. "It was just also making sure that everybody on my team and everybody from the Wizards organization was on the same page."

Wall is scheduled to undergo the procedure next week with an estimated recovery time of six to eight months.

Wall said he's been dealing with bone spurs - known medically as "Haglund's deformity" - for several years. Prior to being shut down, he missed two games this season due to the bone spur issue with two other absences attributed to illness and personal reasons.

The loss of their five-time All-Star point guard likely puts coffin nails in the Wizards' campaign. They have the sixth-worst net rating in the NBA going into Monday and sit nine games below .500.