San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama is off to career-best start to the 2025-26 NBA season, but the third-year center will now be sidelined for the forseeable future.
ESPN's Shams Charania reports that Wembanyama suffered a left calf strain that will keep him out of games moving forward. It's unclear exactly when the injury occurred, but he did miss San Antonio's most recent game, a win over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night with left calf tightness.
Wembanyama has played in 12 of the Spurs 13 games this year, but San Antonio will have to find a way to win games without him. Here's the latest on Wembanyama's injury.
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How long is Victor Wembanyama out?
According to Charania, Wembanyama will be out "a few weeks" with the injury. Since a calf strain is a soft tissue injury, the Spurs will surely be cautious with their franchise player before allowing him to return to action.
Therefore, it may be a while before Wembanyama returns to the court. According to Michael C. Wright, the Spurs will reevaluate Wembanyama in 2-to-3 weeks but lean on the side of caution.
League source says Spurs will re-evaluate Victor Wembanyama in 2-3 weeks. He'll be out at least 2 weeks. Spurs are being especially cautious given all the calf injuries we've seen lately turn into something worse. For what it's worth, I'm told Vic feels fine.
— Michael C. Wright (@mikecwright) November 17, 2025
What happened to Victor Wembanyama?
Wembanyama suffered a left calf strain that will hold him out of games for at least 2-3 weeks. It's unclear exactly when the injury occurred, but he last played on Friday night in a loss to the Golden State Warriors.
On Sunday night, Wembanyama missed San Antonio's contest against the Kings with left calf tightness, which was his first missed game of the season. After Wembanyama underwent an MRI, he was diagnosed with a left calf strain.
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Calf strain recovery timeline in NBA
Calf strains have become frequent injuries in the NBA, as Wembanyama, Ja Morant, Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday are all sidelined with the injury. Typically, calf strain return dates depend on the grade, as lower grades can cost the players a few weeks but higher grades lead to absences of multiple months.
As calf strains can be precursors to Achilles injuries, teams tend to be careful with players regarding these kinds of injuries.
Victor Wembanyama injury history
In his NBA career, Wembanyama has had his share of injuries. In his rookie year, Wembanyama missed 11 games with hip and multiple ankle injuries, but he was still able to play in 71 games. The following year, Wembanyama played in just 46 games as he battled a blood clot in his right shoulder.