Should the Raptors be worried about OG Anunoby’s injury history?

OG Anunoby and the Toronto Raptors were already struggling to get their feet under them in the second half due to some concerning losses, and things got even worse when yet another injury took a chunk out of this rotation. After missing time earlier in the year with a hip injury, Anunoby was knocked out once more.

With Toronto in the middle of a playoff race in what has become an incredibly competitive Eastern Conference, losing an expert 3-point marksman and on-ball defender is exactly what this team didn’t need. Anunoby was averaging career-highs in points and rebounds per game.

Anunoby will be reevaluated in the next two weeks after fracturing a finger on his shooting hand. Considering that OG has not played 70 games in a season since his rookie year, his durability is being examined with a fine-toothed comb. Is there cause for concern?

While it’s ridiculous to expect everyone to play 82 games every year, Toronto has now seen Anunoby go down with some serious injuries over the last four years. The list of his injuries is not pretty, and some might designate him with the “injury-prone” tag after this season.

Toronto Raptors star OG Anunoby has a long injury history.

The only reason that Anunoby was even available to be drafted at No. 23 overall in 2017 was the fact he tore his ACL during his final year at Indiana. While his appendectomy in 2019 isn’t necessarily a result of anything he may have done, it still knocked him out for their Kawhi Leonard-led playoff run.

The last two years have been the most brutal, as he has sat out a combined 50 games since the start of the 2020-21 season. With a calf injury hurting him for most of last year, Anunoby has now suffered two bone injuries.

Masai Ujiri should be just a bit worried about the fact one of the cornerstones of his master plan to rebuild the team has sustained significant knee, hip, calf, appendix, and hand injuries before turning 25 years old.

Anunoby has now sustained a serious injury in three of the last four seasons, and that should give the Raptors some cause for concern. With more mileage on that body, could the injuries keep increasing?

Perhaps the decision to acquire Thad Young was influenced in part by OG’s durability issues? He’s an extremely talented player that has earned every penny of that multi-year extension, but his body has now started to betray him in a significant fashion lately. His future in Toronto is just a touch dimmer.