Nikola Jovic expects full recovery before start of new NBA season

Before the start of the Olympic Games in Paris in July, the Serbian national team suffered a major scare when their young Nikola Jovic was injured. The talented forward looked set to miss international competition, but he eventually recovered in time to join his country and contribute to their bronze medal success.

Now that he has accomplished what he set out to accomplish in Europe this summer, the 21-year-old is back in the United States to recover from some ligament pain. The Serbian spoke to the press via a conference call and talked about his upcoming season, as he has picked up the fourth year of his contract.

“I would say I’m almost completely healthy. Of course, there’s a little ligament that still needs to be 100 percent. They said it would take a little more time, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Basically, I’m 100 percent,” Nikola told the Miami Herald this week.

Miami Heat’s Nikola Jović hopes to make a full recovery for the start of the 2024-25 season #NBA season:

“I am almost 100 percent healthy”https://t.co/gJtmdaP6hV

— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) September 12, 2024

Jovic recalled arriving at his country’s training camp still wearing a protective boot, which is why he was given only a bit part in his coach Svetislav Pesic’s team. “It wasn’t just a regular sprained ankle; it was a small fracture.

“I had MRIs and everything. At that point, they weren’t sure if I was going to make it to the Olympics. But my biggest goal was just to be there, be with the team and help them out as much as I could,” the Heat star explained.

His confidence was boosted, however, when his coach said he wanted him for the Olympics despite his pain. “We flew to Paris and I knew I wasn’t in great shape because I hadn’t played for a while. My foot was maybe not ready for a big role, and we all knew that, and the coach understood everything. But he still wanted me to go; he still believed I could help as much as possible, and I did,” he said.

The young Nikola then talked about his offseason work in Florida. “We make sure my foot is good after every practice because the injury I had is no joke and we really don’t want to have any more problems with it,” he revealed.

Terry Rozier is another Heat player who has not yet recovered 100%, but expects to be fully recovered before the start of training camp later this month.

The Serbian international has already indicated how important it is for him to start training camp fully recovered. “So during training camp I wouldn’t say I’m going to sit down or anything like that, but of course you want to make sure that everything is good,” he shared this week.

“If by chance something is going to hurt, I’ll probably have to take a step back. But I don’t think that will be the case, and I’m really looking forward to being 100 percent and giving everything I have,” Jovic concluded.

Terry Rozier is also working hard to fully recover for the start of the campaign. “I would say not completely, completely, completely free of playing five-on-five,” Rozier said. “But I’m doing all the activities on the field, playing a little bit of three-on-three.

“But I think I’ll be moving to five-a-side in the next few weeks… I’ve been trying to get back on my feet since the end of the season. That required little things like cycling or walking on hills and things like that, when I couldn’t run yet. So my fitness is pretty good,” the veteran said.