McHale's Achilles a Concern for 86 C's

McHale's sore left Achilles' tendon has become a serious concern for the Boston Celtics.

A lot of people think McHale should take a long rest; virtually everyone questions the wisdom of letting McHale play 20 minutes in Sunday's All-Star game; and the ugly thought that the tendon might snap haunts McHale and the team.

"There's definitely a risk of that," McHale said before last night's Celtics-Sonics bout at the Seattle Coliseum. "That's the thing that concerns me. I'd be able to fish a lot if that happened."

A severed Achilles' tendon would put McHale on the shelf for the rest of the season and would threaten his career. That's part of the reason that no one wants to decide when it's time for McHale to resume playing.

McHale's sore left Achilles' tendon kept him on the sidelines for seven of the last eight regular season games as well.

"It's really driving me crazy," McHale said. "It feels good, then it feels bad. I've done everything we felt was right for it."

No one is certain what will happen next. After missing five straight games, McHale played 12 minutes against the Bucks last week but was unable to play the next night against Washington. He played 20 minutes in Sunday's All-Star game (leaving the Celtics and East coach K.C. Jones open to criticism), worked out Monday night with his teammates but was too sore to play Tuesday.

McHale has been taking anti-inflammatory drugs but has not had any injections. He stopped taking the drugs when they gave him stomach problems over the weekend, but he has since resumed the medication.

Celtics trainer Ray Melchiorre talked with Dr. Robert Leach yesterday and reported, "It was not alarming that he had pain, considering the fact that Kevin had not taken the medication since Sunday. It will be day to day from here. We'll continue with therapy, and hopefully he'll start playing. It's just a matter of how he feels. We won't let him practice today, and he should be better tomorrow."

McHale said yesterday, "It doesn't feel too bad today. I hope I can play, but I really don't know. One day it feels good, then I play on it and it goes all to hell."