Before the All-Star Break, Hawks center Onyeka Okongwu injured his big left toe in a game against the Chicago Bulls and was ruled out for the following game against the Charlotte Hornets. The Hawks released this information following his initial injury: Okongwu was diagnosed with a left big toe sprain after receiving an X-ray at State Farm Arena yesterday night and an MRI today at the Emory Sports Medicine Complex. He will be labeled as out for tomorrow’s game in Charlotte and will be re-evaluated in seven to ten days. Today at practice, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder said that Okongwu would be out for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t want to speak out of turn as far as a timeline goes, but he’s not going to be available for the foreseeable future.”

That’s certainly huge news for the Hawks. Okongwu has played quite well since taking over as starting center with Clint Capela out due to an injury, and one could argue that he may be the starting center for the remainder of the season prior to today’s announcement. Bruno Fernando started for the Hawks against Charlotte, while Okongwu and Capela were both out. Fernando could start tomorrow’s game, while Capela could come off the bench, although this is only speculation.

This year, the Hawks have struggled to get healthy. There haven’t been many games in which Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, Saddiq Bey, Jalen Johnson, Okongwu, Capela, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and De’Andre Hunter were all healthy. Atlanta has a lot of issues, but not having these men together for more games has hurt the team this season.