Physicality isn’t the only thing being assessed in NBA player Joel Embiid‘s testing.
Bell’s palsy was recently discovered in the 30-year-old Philadelphia 76ers player, who made the announcement during a press conference following his team’s victory over the New York Knicks on Thursday, April 25. Embiid said,
“I think it started a day or two before the Miami game [in the play-in tournament on April 17], and I had bad migraines and thought it was nothing,”
“My body was just, I was just not feeling it.”
“It’s been tough, but I’m not a quitter,” “I’m going to keep fighting through anything. It’s unfortunate, that’s the way I look at it. But it’s not an excuse. I’ve got to keep pushing.”
“I just hope that [my face] could stay like this,” Embiid quipped, per ESPN. “I got a beautiful face. I don’t like when my mouth is looking the other way.” “Like I said, unfortunate situation, but everything happens for a reason,” “I gotta take care of myself mentally.”
The “left side of my face, my mouth, and my eye” were the first areas Embiid remembered feeling the affects. According to ESPN, he has since claimed that the illness has occasionally caused him to have hazy vision and that he has needed to use eye drops to keep his eyes from drying up.
According to the site, Embiid is still rehabilitating from a knee injury that required surgery in February and kept him out of the game for two months. Embiid acknowledged that he frequently questions himself, “Why me?” during the news conference when talking about his physicality. However, he added that he is making every effort to get past it.
