I confess to complete plagiarism here. I lifted this from SOSH from a post by thedeuce222.
http://sonsofsamhorn.net/topic/80655-2014-nba-draft-thread/page-26--------------------
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(from) espn insider right now from Dr. Mark Adickes - who was the Rockets team physician in 2006-2010 when Yao Ming dealt with his navicular bone stress fracture injuries. He "projects" Embiid to make a full recovery and have a "solid" NBA career. Adickes makes several important points in which Embiid differs from Yao:
One - Ming was huge - significantly larger than Embiid, standing at 7'6, 310ish. This put a significantly higher amount of stress on his feet than Embiid's frame does.
Two - Ming originally suffered the injury in April 2006. At that time, Ming had already been playing professional basketball for almost a decade - first in China and then with the Rockets. He had a lot of mileage and wear and tear on his body which made it harder to heal from the injury.
Three - After Ming's original injury in April 06, he was put on crutches to heal without having surgery. He came back in the 06-07 season, played well and was named second-team All-NBA. He then suffered a recurrence the following year.
Four - Ming had extremely high arches in his feet, which placed added stress on the bones, and which he doubts Embiid has to the same degree.
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