Aussie NBA fans hold their breath as Exum collapses

Australian NBA fans collectively held their breath as injury-plagued star Dante Exum collapsed on the court, sparking fears that he had snapped his achilles.

But it didn't take long for those fears to be extinguished after the Cleveland Cavaliers announced their in-form guard had picked up a right calf strain, a far less serious injury.

Exum was on the court when he went down untouched after a quick push off, turning back to see who kicked him, in what looked like a typical achilles injury.

Exum is famously injury-plagued, with this injury collectively breaking hearts around the basketball world.

Following his modest rookie season, Exum tore his ACL playing for the Boomers and missed the entire 2015/16 season.

Every season since there have been serious clouds looming over his injury status. In October 2017 he underwent shoulder surgery and did not return until March 2018, playing only 14 games. Then in 2019 Exum missed 41 games due to an ankle sprain, a bone bruise and eventually a torn patella tendon in his right knee.

Going into the 2019/2020 season, Exum was still warding off the knee injury, before missing a game due to illness in January. He was sidelined with a sprained ankle in February, and a left hip complaint sidelined him for the 2020/2021 opener.

Social media blew up in empathy for Exum, fearing the worst, with an Achilles injury certain to sideline him for at least four months and up to a year.

"Having just watched the replay of that Dante Exum injury I hope so much that he has hurt his calf or ankle but everything about his reaction, the lack of contact before it screams achillies (sic). He even looked behind to see who kicked him. Let's hope for positive news," wrote The Age sports journalist Roy Ward on Twitter.

"Man, my heart just breaks for Danté Exum, who went down with a non-contact right leg injury less than a minute into today's game against the Magic. Here's hoping it's not as bad as it looked, because it *looked* like your classic Achilles injury," added basketball reporter Olgun Uluc.

This week Exum, was heavily praised after his defence on arguably the league's hottest point guard Trae Young in the Cleveland Cavaliers' win over the Atlanta Hawks.

Coming into the game averaging 30.5 points per game to go along with eight assists a night, Exum held Young to just 16 points on 6-16 shooting as the Cavs ran out 96-91 winners.

After being traded to Cleveland halfway through last season, Exum has carved himself a steady role on a young Cavs team, starting in the absence of first round pick Isaac Okoro in the last two games.

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from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/basketball/dante-exum-cleveland-cavalier-injury/79700e66-f47c-486a-9df6-8c169f9963b1