Training camp hasn’t even begun and Raptors star Chris Bosh is already on the sidelines.
According to a press release from the team, Bosh will miss the start of next week’s training camp in Ottawa with a strained left hamstring.
“He experienced initial discomfort last week while training in Dallas and reaggravated the hamstring during a workout Wednesday in Toronto,” the release said.
“He will be reevaluated when the team returns to Toronto and any update to his status will be released at that time.”
Bosh’s absence will hurt as the new-look Raptors try to gel together as a team.
Off-season moves leave only three returning players from last year’s roster and Bosh was set to be the centrepiece among all the new faces.
Through trades, signings and the draft, the likes of Marco Belinelli, Hedo Turkoglu, Jarrett Jack, Reggie Evans, Antoine Wright, Rasho Nesterovic, Amir Johnson, Sonny Weems and DeMar DeRozan will join the Raptors this season, completing changing the team’s chemistry.
Bosh is looking forward to playing with his new teammates and seeing what they were capable of.
“I think we’re looking like a good team,” he told the Globe and Mail. “I don’t want to do bad this year. I want this team [to] do well and be [as] successful as we can be.”
Questions about Bosh’s durability are now coming up, though. He has never played a full season, although he came close in 2004-05 with 81 appearances.
Most of Bosh’s layoffs have been due to issues with his knees and he has also missed time with groin, ankle and thumb injuries.
Bosh will become a free agent at the end of this season and most analysts predict he won’t be a Raptor this time next year.
Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo made so many off-season moves with the hopes of enticing Bosh to re-sign with the club.
The four-time all-star averaged a career-high 22.7 points and 10 rebounds last season.
Toronto will also be without Turkoglu for much of October as he rests following a hectic schedule with the Turkish national team.
The Raptors pre-season begins Oct. 6 in London, Ont. against the Philadelphia 76ers and the games count starting Oct. 28, as Toronto hosts the Cleveland Cavaliers.