Already reeling Pelicans receive more disheartening news about Zion

It's been a Herculean task trying to keep up with all of the injuries for the New Orleans Pelicans so far in this early season. There's nary a player on the roster that hasn't been to the infirmary, and nearly all of their core rotation members have missed multiple games. Some players, like Dejounte Murray and Herb Jones, are slated to remain out for the foreseeable future too.

A few of the Pelicans have steadily made their back onto the court. Trey Murphy III missed the first couple weeks of the year with a hamstring strain that he suffered at the beginning of training camp but has been available for New Orleans's last few outings. Brandon Ingram missed one game with a minor ankle issue but quickly made his return as the Pelicans' rock for this season.

At first, it was BI and Zion Williamson, New Orleans's two infamously injury-prone stars, who were the last survivors after TMIII, DJM, CJ, and Herb all went down. Then, Z was ruled out of a couple of games with ambiguous diagnoses before he was ultimately ruled out with a hamstring strain. That seemed like a pretty straightforward injury at first — it's certainly not the first hamstring strain the Pelicans have dealt with this season — but, apparently, Zion Williamson's ailment is more complicated than was initially expected.

Zion Williamson could miss more time than first anticipated

According to ESPN's Shams Charania, Zion Williamson could be out for longer than the Pelicans thought and for longer than the standard recovery time for a hamstring strain of his severity. Charania stated that Z has undergone numerous treatments on his leg and all signs point to the fact that he's not close to a return, despite being out since November 9:

"I'm told that Zion Williamson is not close to a return, he's still a ways away. Sources tell me he's received multiple treatments for that hamstring strain. That's become a chronic issue for him over the last few years. A hamstring [strain], it's typically a 4-6 week injury with the grade level [he has] from what I'm told, but the Pelicans are bracing [that] for him, it could go longer than that, which would be beyond mid-December."

This is terrible news for a Pelicans team that came into the season with legitimate title aspirations and was expecting a renewed Zion, one that just came off the healthiest season of his career in 2023-24 and entered the campaign the lightest he's even been as an NBA player. Hopefully, the rest of the sidelined Pelicans can come back soon and help alleviate Z's extended absence.