Wade Will Return and Opts for Rehab

No More Wading

Some good news today for the Miami Heat -- Dwyane Wade addressed the media after the Heat's practice this morning and announced he would return to the Heat this season and opt for surgery in the offseason.

"My decision is for the next two to three weeks to rehab, with the possibility of coming back, but with no guarantee and to see if I have the confidence in my shoulder to play at a high level," Wade said at the conference this morning after practice.

Surgery is a necessity, and Wade is opting to put it off for now in the hopes that he can perform for his team down the road:

"It could have been easy for me just to shut it down," he said. "It's tough, because I don't know if I can attack. But my body is my body; I'll find out after the rehab...You would hope to think you could come back to play a couple of games. My spirits are high. I'm excited to go forward and do the therapy."

Wade can't do any further damage to his shoulder, revealing he tore his labrum.

Eddie Jones suffered a similar shoulder injury back in 2001, around this time of the season actually. In fact, he missed a total of 15 games that season, but with rehab was able to make it back to the court. Jones seems to think that Wade can also do it with rehab, and to his benefit, Wade will be allowed to wear shoulder protection that extends beyond his uniform. Udonis Haslem wore equipment very similar to what will be offered to Wade during last season's playoff run.

It is unknown, at least to the public, whether or not Wade's dislocation and tear of the labrum was aggravated by his tumble on February 13th against the Trailblazers, although it is a good bet that his aggressive style of play only enhanced his ability to get injured. It seems that the decision is to put off surgery for now and hope that the rehab will strengthen the muscles around the bone and keep it from popping loose again.

Other players have pushed for Wade to get rehab, humorously most of those players come from opposing teams. The current rehab regimen will take approximately 4 to 6 weeks.