Official: Hawks center injured the fourth metacarpal ligament in his left hand and is expected to miss the rest of the regular season

Due to a left hand injury, Hawks center Clint Capela is expected to miss the remainder of the 2024/25 regular season.

The Atlanta Hawks announced on Friday that an MRI on March 17 showed that Capela had injured the fourth metacarpal ligament in his left hand. He will undergo rehabilitation treatment and is expected to be re-evaluated in three to four weeks.

The regular season of this season will end on April 13th local time, and Capela is almost certain to be unable to return in the remaining games. The Hawks are currently ranked seventh in the Eastern Conference with 33 wins and 36 losses, and are in the play-in zone. If all goes well, Capela is expected to catch up with the playoffs later next month.

Capela, 30, was selected by the Houston Rockets with the 25th pick in the first round in 2012 and was traded to the Atlanta Hawks in February 2020. He had long served as the Hawks' main center, but Onyeka Okongwu replaced him in the starting lineup in mid-January this year. Despite this, Capela still played 51 times for the Hawks this season, averaging 8.9 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game.

Before the injury was confirmed, Capela had missed three consecutive regular season games due to "family reasons", but the exact time of the injury was unknown. According to Atlanta reporter Lauren L. Williams, he may have been injured in a game earlier this month and once tried to play with the injury.