Kyrie Irving Says He Can’t Lift His Shoulder to Shoot: ‘It’s Definitely Frustrating’

Kyrie Irving sat down with the media Saturday to provide an update on the shoulder injury he sustained in early November. However, it remains unclear when the Brooklyn Nets star will return to the court, as he continues struggling to lift his right shoulder when taking shots.

“It just sucks, man. It really is disheartening when you’re working your tail off to be at a certain level and then your shooting shoulder just starts to give out on you a little bit,” Irving told the media, as reported by SNY. “… You keep feeling something in your shoulder and you’re trying to explain it to the medical staff, you’re trying to explain it to all of these experts out there. I’m going to see shoulder specialists … So it ‘s definitely frustrating, but like I said, I’m in a better place now. Just going to keep progressing and see where we end up in the next few weeks.”

The press conference marked Irving’s first comments to the press since he was sidelined nearly two months ago. The 27-year-old athlete said he began feeling shoulder pain shortly after the Nets vs. Pelicans game on Nov. 4. It was later revealed he had suffered a shoulder impingement, which could possibly require surgery. Irving told reporters he has avoided going under the knife, and has instead turned to cortisone shots for the time being.

“I’m in a better place now, now that there’s been some significant time,” he said. “I tried to go without any anti-inflammatories, which is why it took so long, and now I’m at a place where the next step in any progression was to either get a cortisone shot or get surgery. That was the ultimatum I was fixed with, so now I’m just doing the best I can to live off this cortisone and move forward if I need surgery in the future.”

Irving appears to be taking his recovery day-by-day, and says he is currently focus on regaining his strength through rehab.

“We’ll see in two months or so if it still lasts or in a month or so, or it could start hurting in the next two weeks,” he said. “I don’t know, but I’m going to continue on the process that I am of rehabbing and trying to get back out there with the guys.”