Struggling Rockets reeling after losing all-star center to serious injury

HOUSTON, Taxes - Houston Rockets center Yao Ming will miss the rest of the season because of a stress fracture in his left ankle.

The Rockets announced the decision on Friday, a day after the injury was found in an MRI scan. Team physician Walter Lowe said surgery is the usual treatment for such an injury, which has sidelined Yao since Nov 10.

The 30-year-old Yao is still consulting doctors to determine how he will proceed. If he chooses surgery, it could be up to 10 months before he can return to the court.

The seven-time all-star sat out last season after reconstructive surgery to repair his broken left foot. Lowe said this injury is related to last year's injury. He said the reconstructive surgery on his foot does not put him at a greater risk of stress fractures, but Yao has always been prone to them.

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Yao's reconstructive surgery was to make the foot flatter to help distribute the stresses.

"When you look at the course of Yao's career, stress fractures have been part of his foot," Lowe said. "So to say he's not at a risk to continue to have stress fractures would be crazy. So he is at a continued risk. The new position of his foot should ... make those stresses lower."

Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said he is hopeful Yao will recover and play for the team in the future, despite the latest setback.

"We need to continue to talk to the doctors and see where that goes," Morey said. "Yao Ming's an all-star center and when you look throughout the league there's not very many of them. So if it looks like there's a good prognosis here - and we're still learning how good that prognosis will be - for sure we're going to look at Yao Ming past this season."

Lowe is also optimistic Yao could play again.

"Is this something that I would say: 'Hey, you've got no chance of ever playing again'? No, absolutely not," Lowe said.

Yao was not made available to the media on Friday, but Morey said he's taking the news hard.

"How much he's been off the court, and how much he cares about his teammates and the fans and the Rockets, probably is really tough for him," Morey said.

Houston coach Rick Adelman said the news is difficult because the team was so excited about his return.

"It's just really sad, and you have to really feel for him because he's worked so hard to come back and then to have this happen," Adelman said. "Last week, he was talking about getting out to play pretty soon, and now to get this news, you really feel for him and feel for our team."

Yao is due to make $17.7 million this season after signing a five-year contract extension in September 2005. Morey said the Rockets would explore options including possible trade and signing exceptions and cap relief to soften the blow of Yao's absence.

"We're examining those," Morey said. "We haven't finalized the course of action or talked to the league about that. Those can help if you get them. Those are things you generally apply for and then the league chooses to grant. A lot of the circumstances around this injury give us a good chance at those options."

The Rockets went 42-40 and missed the playoffs with Yao on the sideline last season, and are just 10-15 so far this year, at the bottom of the Southwest Division.

Morey said the team had prepared for this possibility and claimed the Rockets are resilient and will get past the setback.

"We still feel like we're a team that can make the playoffs this season," Morey said. "We feel like we're fighting with about four or five other teams for maybe the seven eight seeds this season. I know our guys in the locker-room aren't writing the season off. I know I'm not. I know coach Adelman isn't. We still think this can be a great season."

associated press