De’Andre Hunter is set to miss time just a few games into his Kings tenure after being diagnosed with iritis in his left eye following an injury late in the third quarter of Sacramento’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday.
The Kings announced Sunday that he will be reevaluated in 10 days.
Stanford Medicine’s Jeffrey Goldberg, M.D., spoke with NBC Sports California to break down the diagnosis, explaining what iritis is, how it occurs and how it could impact Hunter’s vision and on-court performance during recovery.
“Iritis actually refers to an inflammation that can occur inside the eye — the iris,” Dr. Goldberg said. “The iris is the colored circle inside our eyes. That tissue inside the eye can get inflamed, and we call that iritis.”
While the diagnosis might sound alarming, Goldberg noted the condition is relatively common — particularly following contact injuries.
“One of the causes of iritis is getting an eye injury — for example, a hand, an elbow or a basketball to the eye,” Goldberg explained.
The injury comes at an inopportune time for Sacramento, as Hunter is still settling in with his new team. The Kings acquired the 28-year-old forward on Jan. 31, sending Keon Ellis and Dennis Schröder to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Goldberg explained that iritis can temporarily affect an athlete’s ability to see and react at full capacity while the eye heals.
“Iritis can actually really decrease the vision in that eye,” Goldberg added. “During the period of having the iritis, your vision can be down, bright lights can be painful and it can be quite frustrating. It actually interferes a little bit with your depth perception, so hand-eye coordination out on the court can be tougher. Of course, we’re talking about elite athletes here, so they may be able to perform just as well without even noticing.”
The encouraging news for Sacramento is that iritis typically resolves with treatment and rest.
“It’s actually quite commonly self-limited, which is to say it can go away even by itself,” Goldberg noted. “But once we diagnose it, we usually do treat with anti-inflammatory eye drops to help quiet down and normalize that inflammation. Often, we’re talking about days — a week, a couple weeks at most in all but the most difficult cases. So, I think we should be hoping for a quick recovery.”
Hunter’s return timeline ultimately will depend on how quickly the inflammation subsides and his vision returns to normal. But the Kings will await his reevaluation as they continue through their upcoming slate.
Download and follow The Deuce & Mo Podcast