“Pretty confident”: Philadelphia 76ers head coach Nick Nurse remains optimistic about return of Joel Embiid before playoffs

Philadelphia 76ers head coach Nick Nurse has stated that he is ‘pretty confident’ about the return of the star centre Joel Embiid before the start of the playoffs.

The 30-year-old has been out of action since January 31 when he suffered a knee injury in a match against the Golden State Warriors and for that, he also underwent surgery.

Nurse was quoted in a report before the Sixers' recent win against the Charlotte Hornets with a score of 109-98, where he expressed optimism that the Sixers' star player will be available for the team in the playoffs.

"I think there's always stages of how these things progress," he said. "Everyone wants to know 'Well how long is it going to be?" And they give a wide range because of that, because everyone heals differently. We're just trying to take it as it comes, get him healthy and get him back when he's ready to go. I'm still hoping so and pretty confident, yes.”

Before getting injured, Embiid was perhaps the most influential player in the NBA where he was registering 35.3 points per game which would still be the best points-per-game ratio in the competition by any player. To go with that he was also contributing 11.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game as well.