Bulls' Patrick Williams to Undergo Surgery on Foot Injury, Will Miss Rest of Season

Chicago Bulls forward Patrick Williams will miss the remainder of the season after imaging showed his foot needed surgery, the team announced Friday.

Williams has been sidelined since Jan. 25 with a bone edema in his left foot.

Williams was averaging 10.0 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists through 43 games prior to his injury.

The injury will test the Bulls' depth as they fight to secure a playoff spot in the final 27 games of the season.

The Bulls initially projected a period of two weeks for reevaluation of Williams' injury. The plan was for Williams to rest the foot, then slowly ramp back up into on-court activity.

But head coach Billy Donovan said earlier this week that Williams was still experiencing pain during that ramp-up, according to NBC Sports' KC Johnson.

"Everything they do is going to be based on his pain and what he can tolerate," Donovan said Tuesday, per Johnson. "Quite honestly, there have been certain things where he's felt it... He has responded really well and done well. But on some of the things he has done, he has felt it mildly."

The news of Williams' season-ending surgery adds to an already-long list of Bulls injury woes.

Zach LaVine underwent his own season-ending foot surgery earlier this month. Torrey Craig sprained his knee over the All-Star break and has yet to return. The team was already missing Lonzo Ball, who has undergone three knee surgeries since he last played in January 2022.

This isn't the first time Williams' season has been cut short by surgery. The 23-year-old missed most of his sophomore 2021-22 campaign after undergoing surgery on his left wrist.

By the end of this fourth season, Williams will have been healthy for just 65 percent of the Bulls' regular-season games played during his tenure in Chicago, according to NBC Sports' Kevin Anderson.

Williams is in the final year of an expiring rookie contract after he and the Bulls failed to agree on an extension by the October deadline. He is set to become a restricted free agent this summer with a qualifying offer of $12.97 million, per Spotrac.