Forward Paolo Banchero has been diagnosed with a low-grade high ankle sprain after undergoing an MRI, the Magic announced (Twitter link).
While the team didn’t provide an official timetable for Banchero’s return, Shams Charania of ESPN, who first reported the news (via Twitter), noted that players who experience high ankle sprains often miss four-to-six weeks.
Banchero suffered the injury in the first quarter of Friday’s home loss to Minnesota. The one-time All-Star told Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel after the game that he was optimistic about the nature of the injury, but imaging revealed the high sprain to his right ankle.
“It was a play in the first quarter where Desmond (Bane) fell into me, kind of rolled up on my ankle and tweaked it to the inside,” Banchero said. “And then I kept playing. And then I came out of halftime and there was that play in the third where I jumped, felt it, got up, asked to come out, came back in, and then felt it again. And I was just like, ‘Yeah, I’m not going to push it any farther.’
“But I feel pretty confident it’s nothing too major. I think I just tweaked it to the inside. Most of all my ankle sprains have always been to the outside, so this is kind of foreign to me. So a little scary in that way. But doctors looked at it. Nothing’s structurally wrong. I can like move and walk fine. But definitely going to go get it looked at just to make sure everything’s good structurally. But I’m pretty confident that it’s not anything major or serious.”
According to the Magic, Banchero will undergo further testing and evaluation. Beede hears the former No. 1 overall pick will be out for Sunday’s game in New York, which isn’t surprising given the estimated timeline cited above.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN observes (via Twitter), injuries to Banchero and Franz Wagner have been a recurring theme the past two seasons. The star forwards only played 24 games together last season, largely because Wagner missed extended time with his own high ankle sprain, and appeared in just 40 games together in 2024/25, when they both dealt with torn obliques.
Orlando’s frontcourt depth will be tested early on this season. In addition to Banchero, Noah Penda (partially torn right hamstring), Jonathan Isaac (left knee injury management), and two-way big man Izaiyah Nelson (left ankle injury recovery) are all sidelined, Beede notes.
Third-year forward Tristan Da Silva figures to see more playing time with Banchero out. The Magic exercised the 25-year-old’s fourth-year option option earlier this week.
