Danilo Gallinari Injury: Updates on Nuggets Star's Knee and Return

The Denver Nuggets are once again forced to worry about the status of Danilo Gallinari after the forward was forced to leave the team's game against the Suns on Wednesday night with knee soreness.

The Nuggets passed along further information:

One of the toughest things for a franchise to handle is a player coming back from a serious injury. That was the case coming into the season for Gallinari. He had missed 18 months as he recovered from knee surgery to repair his ACL.

While knee soreness is obviously an ambiguous diagnosis with varied levels of severity, the Nuggets have to be concerned he's done something to aggravate a former injury.

The plan at the outset was to steadily increase his workload. Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post provided comments from head coach Brian Shaw about the situation:

Along with the physical limitations after an extended period on the sidelines, it's also a mental battle. Each player's situation is unique, but there's always a hurdle to jump over in terms of having complete faith your knee is going to hold up at full NBA speed.

So it's often a lengthy process. Often, players don't start looking completely like themselves again until the next season.

This potential setback could make things even more difficult in Gallinari's quest to get back on track. Of course, a lot will depend on the severity of the latest injury.

He was very happy with how he was playing before originally going down with the knee issue near the end of the 2012-13 campaign. Jeff Caplan of NBA.com noted the small forward's thoughts on where he was and where he wanted to be once the comeback was complete:

"

I was playing very well. I thought at that point right before the All-Star Game, I should have been called for the All-Star Game [...] because we were one of the best teams in the league, and so I think you have to call, you have to call somebody from the Nuggets to represent a great franchise and a franchise that was doing very good. I thought that me and Ty Lawson, we were the two that could have, should have been called for the All-Star game. So I thought I was right at that level, and so my goal is to get back at that level, if not better.

"

Gallinari is still just 26. There's plenty of time for him to reach those expectations, but staying healthy for an extended stretch is essential. Only time will tell if that happens.

As for the Nuggets, they will likely turn to a combination of Wilson Chandler and Alonzo Gee until Gallinari is cleared for action again. Neither of them presents the same type of upside, but as a tandem they should provide solid production.

All Denver can hope is the latest scare doesn't turn into anything major. It doesn't want to see Gallinari in street clothes for the majority of another season.