Forward Charlie Villanueva has played in two games this year amounting to six minutes and not a single point or rebound. He hasn't played since getting hooked after a rather meh four-plus minutes on January 4 vs. the Bulls. That Saturday, the morning after receiving a DNP-CD against Philadelphia, MLIVE ran a story about Villanueva not being frustrated with his playing time; he insisted he still had a role with the team and it was just a matter of time before he'd be in the rotation. That night he didn't play vs. New York with what was termed a sore ankle.
That's presumably the same day he woke up with pain in his ankle, which was still mysteriously bothering him five days later:
"It's crazy because it's not like I sprained my ankle," Villanueva said. "I woke up and it was like, 'Arnie (Kander, the Pistons' strength and conditioning coach), my ankle hurts,' and it started from there. "But it's not like I stepped on somebody's ankle or rolled my ankle. I just woke up with my ankle hurting."
Villanueva had x-rays on the ankle that Saturday of the Knicks game, if that's the Saturday MLIVE is referring to in its article, but there have been seemingly no other updates on the ankle of a player who is eating more than $7 million this year (and "he's out tonight" notices don't count).
And that is why it was surprising to see commenter BlikkityBlah post a picture of a conversation between Villanueva (villa_man) and one of his followers on Instagram in which villa_man says he needs surgery.
Abakingpowder?
Why hasn't this been reported? Why do we have to be following Charlie Villanueva on Instagram to discover this? It's safe to say not many fans are complaining about Villanueva being out of the lineup, but that's fairly big news about a Piston who is being paid like a star, I'd think.