Dwyane Wade Injury: Updates on Heat Star's Knees and Return

Updates from Sunday. Jan. 26

Tom Haberstroh of ESPN has an update on Dwyane Wade's knees and his status for Sunday's game against San Antonio:

The Heat also passed along a quote from Wade:

---Original Text---

Dwyane Wade is officially out of the lineup for the Miami Heat’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday, Jan. 23. The team announced via Twitter the star shooting guard would miss the contest to get “rest”:

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst noted this is the fourth straight game the 11-year veteran will miss as he looks to get his sore knees back up to speed:

LeBron James, Wade’s teammate over the past four seasons and for two championships, wasn’t sure when Flash might return, as per ESPN’s Michael Wallace:

"

I'm not a doctor. I'm only a player, man. I don't know the [therapy] program he's on. I do know that his knee, if he's feeling good, he's going to play. If he's not feeling good, he doesn't play. For me as one of the leaders on this team, I've got to make sure the guys that are prepared to play are ready to play. When D-Wade is ready to come back, then that's what it is.

"

When Wade has been on the floor, he’s been excellent. The 32-year-old is averaging 18.9 points on 54 percent shooting, 4.8 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.8 steals per game.   

He’s well on his way to being voted in as an All-Star Game starter for the Eastern Conference and has been instrumental to the team’s chance of pulling off a rare three-peat this coming spring.

James described life without his running mate, telling Wallace: "It's tough, it's tough. And guys think it's easy, but it's tough.”

Wade has dealt with knee issues all year, and the team has made a concerted effort to keep him fresh, especially for the second game of back-to-backs. It will be a situation to monitor all year long as the Heat try and keep Wade healthy as they push for a third straight NBA championship.