Portland Trail Blazers forward Rudy Fernandez is hopeful that a surgical procedure to ease pressure upon nerves in his back will ease the pain the Spaniard is feeling in his right leg.
Fernandez joined a growing list of Portland players on the injured list with the Tuesday procedure as the Trail Blazers' active lineup was trimmed to only nine players.
No recovery timetable was set for Fernandez until the results of the microdiscectomy were known.
Fernandez is averaging 8.6 points, 2.2 assists and 2.7 rebounds a game this season.
The Trail Blazers, 13-9 after losing four of their past five games, are already reeling from the loss of center Greg Oden for the entire season with a fractured kneecap in a win Saturday over Houston.
Four other players have nagging injuries, two of them who have spent the whole season on the injured list, and even coach Nate McMillan is coming off surgery Monday to repair a ruptured Achilles' tendon injured while he took part in workouts because the club was so short-handed.
Dean Demopoulos, an assistant coach, will replace McMillan on a four-game road trip.
Copyright 2009  AFP American Edition
