Self disputes report on Embiid

LAWRENCE — According to a report on Saturday from Yahoo! Sports, a recent CT scan revealed an “issue in the healing process” of Embiid’s foot. And a story on Monday in the Philadelphia Inquirer ominously reported that Embiid had a “legitimate chance” to miss the entire 2015-16 season.

Later on Monday afternoon, Kansas coach Bill Self sounded a more positive note when speaking of the foot issue, which stems from a stress fracture suffered before last year’s NBA Draft. Self said Embiid recently spoke to KU assistant coach Norm Roberts about his progress.

“He told us he hasn’t reinjured anything,” Self said. ”He’s been working out and everything, and the doctors have told him, based on redoing the MRIs or X-rays or whatever they do, it doesn’t look like it’s made the progress they would hope at this stage, so they’re going to slow him down.

“But in no way, from what Jo has told us, does slow down mean setback. It means they’re going to give it a little more time to heal before they put him in stressful situations.”

Embiid, a native of Cameroon, also faced injury problems during his only season at Kansas, missing the NCAA Tournament after suffering a stress fracture in his back. He declared for the draft after his freshman season and went No. 3 overall to Philadelphia last June.

MERS impacts World University Games — Self said Monday that he is receiving daily updates on the deadly MERS outbreak that has plagued South Korea in recent weeks. As the death toll rises — it’s now 16, according to reports Monday — the concern over MERS, short for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, has spread to the upcoming World University Games, which are scheduled to begin in Gwangju in early July.

Kansas, which is set to represent the United States in the event’s basketball tournament, is schedule to leave for South Korea on June 28. For the moment, Self said he doesn’t anticipate any problems.

“I’m not concerned about it,” Self said. “If there was any danger at all, the U.S. doctors (and) delegation won’t allow anybody to go. I’m not the least bit concerned yet. Of course, if it becomes a concern, obviously, that would take place then. But all indications are, from what I’ve heard, that is the longest of long shots.”

Kansas officials previously said that the U.S. Delegation for the World University Games is monitoring the ongoing health scare.

According to reports, the MERS outbreak has resulted in close to 100,000 canceled tourist visits to the country. The health issue has also caused schools to close and wreaked havoc on the local economy. According to the World Health Organization, much of the outbreak has been centered near Seoul, which is located more than 150 miles north of Gwangju.

“I know we’ve had different scares going on here in this country, most recently, I guess, Ebola, where there was a few different cases in a few different areas of the United States,” Self said. “I think this particular situation is pretty isolated and it’s a long ways away from Gwangju. It doesn’t mean something can’t happen or spread, but I think right now they feel pretty good about it.”

This story was originally published June 15, 2015 at 8:33 PM with the headline "Self disputes report on Embiid."