WALKER KESSLER gives update on his injury 🎙️ | UTAH JAZZ

You have the best seat in the house. Welcome to the front row for the Utah Jazz. I’m your host, Holly Row, joined by Walker Kesler. We have missed you. Welcome back. Happy to be back. I know. Okay, so I have to get this out there before we start because I’m so proud of you. Started five games, start the season, 70% from the field, 75% from three, and 70% from the free throw line. So, you were on track to have like this incredible season. So, how have you kind of navigated the last month knowing you’d put in all this work and and now you’re you’ve got a labor room and tear. Yeah, you know, um it was frustrating at first a little bit, but you know, I’ve had time to, you know, lean on my family, my friends, um and kind of reflect and understand that everything happens for a reason. And so, you know, I’m trying to stay positive. Rehab’s going great. Um so, just taking taking it day by day now. Okay. I see we’ve got a rehab beard going. What’s h what’s happening here? I just I didn’t shave for a couple couple weeks cuz I didn’t see anybody. So, I was like, I might as well just just just going with it. I don’t know. Yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see if it lasts. My uh my girlfriend’s probably not the biggest fan of it, so Okay. I just had to get that out of the way right off the bat. Understandable. Understandable. So, walk me through what the last month has been like. You had surgery November 6. You’re still in your sling a little bit. Give it give us a broad um stroke of like what the last month has been like. Yeah. So I started rehab the day after surgery. Um for a labum tear really started right away. Um so just been hitting it every day with a couple off days, you know, every 10 days about. Um every day looks the same, you know, progressing a little bit. Uh right now going through I think phase two I’m in right now. So just just a day by day just constantly, you know, going through the motions and trying to be positive mentally, but also just take the rehab seriously. I know that um you have to be away from the team because you’re getting your surgery in LA. You’ve been in LA for your rehab. You haven’t been able to be here with the team. What will it be like for you now to kind of be back and be working here, but but have some kind of love and support around you so you’re not on your own? It’s been great. Um it’s been much needed, you know, seeing the guys. Uh I mean, the day day of my surgery, I heard from basically my whole team, um coaching staff included, you know, front office, you know, everyone was wishing me well, good luck. So, the support has definitely been there. Um, and now seeing them in person has been been awesome. I know you talked about like the challenges mentally of like you have this big season planned for yourself and you were on your way. Um, what what does that look like for you now of like, okay, I can still have goals for the season. They’re just going to look different. They’re going to be rehab goals. They’re going to be learning goals. They’re going to be watching film goals. How does how does that change? No, you said it perfectly. You know, it’s it’s changing the goals. you know, whether that’s trying to be better as a vocal leader or trying to take every day as rehab, you know, and not take any day for granted, you know, invest more on off-c court stuff, you know, with my family, my friends, my relationships, um, and really just find other areas to invest, you know, my time and and effort. That’s a really beautiful way to say it of I I can invest in places that maybe don’t get the investment when you’re playing 82 games and then you’re in the grind. So t take that time because it’s precious, right? Exactly. Exactly. Okay. I love that. I remember last year talking to Taylor when he was right in the heart of his really hard rehab. And he talked about you and the other guys on the team and how loving and making sure that you did not feel forgotten. You mentioned you hear from everybody, but who who else or what else is happening? So they make sure you are no man, you are part of this group. Yeah. I mean, so you know, my my normal day when I get to the facility, I see all of them. You know, I do my rehab in the same facility, which is great. uh see all the guys before practice, you know, I go to watch film with them, I’m around them, they go to practice, I do my rehab, and then after, you know, we’re cutting up in the locker room, you know, doing whatever. Um, so it’s been it’s been great. You know, I feel like one of the guys and, you know, it’s been obviously, you know, I am one of the guys, but you know, I don’t feel excluded just because of my injury, right? Because they can be lonely like they’re all out doing shoot, you know, I see how the setup is. They’re all out there doing their stuff and doing walkthrough and shoot around and you’re off by yourself. you really are over by yourself on your side. So, I see what you’re saying. Tell me a little bit about what rehab looks like. Yeah, so the first couple weeks was very basic, you know, just kind of working the range of motion. Um, you know, actually it’s it’s been going great. You know, I can move it around like around the house. I don’t wear the sling. Um, I just wear it, you know, Dr. Elro told me to the surgeon who did my surgery, um, to wear it around public just kind of let people know like, hey, I’m still so people don’t come and like slap you on the back or like hit you on the shoulder. Right. Exactly. you know, being a big guy, everyone wants to try and, you know, mess with you. But, um, you know, so it feels great, you know, not really to the strengthening phase yet, but just a lot of movement. I’m really intrigued by the labroom situation because I cover a woman in the WNBA, Alyssa Thomas. She’s been playing for the last 5 years with two torn labrooms, one in each shoulder, and she’s been playing like that. And so now, you know, you’ve gotten yours repaired because you really can’t even lift your arm above your head with a torn lab. So tell me like what would what would some of your you know rehab type of things look like? Yeah. So a lot of it you know like I was saying a lot of movement but a lot of it so I can’t really go crossbody yet or behind the back or out in front. Um you know kind of avoiding those until the sutures and everything kind of more and the actual tendon itself you know graft on the back. I don’t I don’t really know. Hey we’re getting into sutures grafting. Okay. I don’t know if I was supposed to go this deep, but I like it. Gluing is what they told me, you know. And then they disintegrate, right? Your stitches or whatever. I don’t think they do in my in my arm. No, really. The these are already taken out, but the actual like inside of my labum, they like stitch it into the bone. Oh, I saw a picture. It was really weird looking, but Oh, cool. You saw the interior? I did. Yeah, he showed me like uh the picture like what my labroom looked like before. It looked like a piece of like cotton. It was really weird. Like frayed edges. Yeah, it was weird. But oh wow. And then when he repaired it, look, it looks great. Um, so very very thankful and just Yeah. Well, let’s move on. I’m sorry I’m getting too deep in the weeds on that one, but I know fans want to know and people are intrigued because they care about you so much. You talked a little bit about, you know, investing into other people in your life. I know your your girlfriend is very busy with her, you know, Miss Miss America. Yeah. Well, she’s actually back in school now. She she gave up her crown, so she’s she’s doing back in nursing school now. Oh, back in nursing school. Oh, well that will make a great difference too. Yeah. And she’s also still busy though, but you can see her point. Exactly. Um, and then just, you know, you talk a little bit about being a voice, so I assume that, you know, once you’re maybe maybe you can’t, can you be on the bench with this sling situation? Not yet. Okay. I was worried about guys like jumping up or doing something and like Okay. But when you can be back on the bench and listening to coaching and learning from a different viewpoint, how will that impact you? Yeah, I think you, you know, like you said, from a different viewpoint is going to be huge. You know, understanding that taking the time when I’m not a player, not to just, you know, meander and be like whatever, but understand what can I learn, take away from when I’m not, you know, gassed or tired during the game or trying to focus on my own performance, something like that, you know, and really trying to lift the other guys up while trying to learn myself. Okay. Can you do lower body stuff? Are you like, are you in incredible condition right now from here down? Cardio-wise, I haven’t done any cardio, but uh legs legs down have been Yeah, they’re very strong. Um feel great. So, okay. Upper body might uh atrophy a little bit. We’ll see. We’ll see. I have no doubt you you’re workaholic. I know you are. I know you are. You I have no doubts about this. Well, we’ve missed you. Welcome back. We We’ve all been just, you know, like it it is a void. We We definitely have missed you in your spirit and energy. So, thank you so much for spending some time with us. I know fans really wanted to get an update on that. And oh, anything cool coming up with your charity stuff? I know you always try to do I wanted to make sure we hit that. Yes, I’m going to do a something I did last year with Walmart. Um going and giving away some gifts to the kids, doing a little Christmas shopping for some kids. So, looking forward to it. How can people get information on that? Uh in about a week or so, I will post stuff on my Instagram. On Instagram. Walker Kesler. No, Kid Kesler. Kid Kesler. Kid Kesler. You got it. Well, thank you so much for joining us here. Hope you enjoyed this update. We’ve been missing our Walker Kesler and good to have you back in the building. Good to be back.

In the latest episode of Front Rowe, Walker sits down with Holly Rowe to give an injury update and talk about how things have been going in the recovery process.

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