Tyler Zeller didn’t play for the Cavaliers Friday night and at the time it was listed as due to the strained hip flexor that he has battled through camp.
But instead he was having an emergency appendectomy — having his appendix removed — tweets Cavaliers radio play-by-play announcer John Michael.
This is a common operation and the recovery time is a 3-4 weeks at most (so long as they got it before it ruptured, which they reportedly did). Zeller very well could be ready for the start of the season.
The appendix is a several inch long tube branching off the large intestine that can become filled with mucus, bacteria, or a host of other foreign bodies. When that happens there is a lot of pain but so long as it is caught and removed before it ruptures this is fairly simple as surgeries go (there are always risks).
The Cavaliers are likely to have Anderson Varejao as their starting center opening night with Zeller as his backup (Tristan Thompson and Anthony Bennett will play the four). Eventually they expect Andrew Bynum to get healthy and join that center rotation (stop snickering, they expect it to happen).
