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Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid has reportedly suffered a lateral meniscus injury in his left knee.

Embiid, a frontrunner for this season’s MVP award, limped off during the 76ers’ 119-107 defeat to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night after clutching his knee in pain.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Embiid, ‘will be out through the weekend while a treatment plan is finalized’. 

Depending on the severity of the injury, Embiid’s recovery could take a few days or possibly multiple weeks. 

This has a major impact on the MVP race as the NBA’s new rule mandates that a player stops being eligible for the honor if they play less than 65 games.

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid has torn his meniscus after injuring his leg Tuesday

He hurt his knee on this play during the 119-107 loss to the Golden State Warriors

It puts Embiid’s MVP ambitions at risk, as he’ll need to be back on the court by February 10

Embiid has played in 34 of the Sixers 46 games so far. With 36 games remaining in the season, he’d need to play 31 of those. To put it another way, if Embiid misses six games, he wouldn’t be eligible.

That means Embiid would need to make a recovery of just nine days to get back on the court before he misses a sixth game on February 10 against the Washington Wizards.

By far and away, Embiid is leading the rest of the league for the MVP race – sitting toward the top in multiple statistical categories.

He’s the league’s leader in points per game (35.3), free throws made per game (10.5) and in average field goals made per game (11.8). 

Embiid is also second in field goal attempts (22.2), seventh in rebounding (11.3), and tied for tenth in blocks (1.8).