Joel Embiid has boot removed, cleared to increase activity

Before Wednesday's game against the Chicago Bulls, Sixers head coach Brett Brown informed the media that Joel Embiid has had the boot on his right foot removed and has been cleared to increase the duration of his workouts.

As Joel Embiid left for Los Angeles earlier this week to meet with his doctor, many Sixers fans feared the worst.

Embiid experienced soreness in his foot over the weekend, which prompted the Sixers to place his injured foot in a boot. While the meeting with his doctor was a regularly scheduled appointment, it left many Sixers fans fearing the worst.

Instead, Brown informed the media that everything was fine: Embiid had the boot removed from his right foot, that he would be working out before the game, and that he had been given clearance to increase the duration of his workouts, now up to 60 minutes without rest.

"Everything is right on track. It's healing at the rate that we expected," Brown said before the game. "It is progressing as they guessed it would, to the point where they've allowed us to increase his minutes on the floor."

Embiid, Brown said, has even been cleared to dunk.

"He has been allowed to dunk," Brown said.

"Through the legs?"

"If that's what it takes," Brown answered.

Brown said that Embiid is currently cleared for 1-on-0 drills, but that the next step would be for him to go 1-on-1.

"They've increased the minutes that we can keep him on the floor," Brown said. "There is going to be some discretion that we use in regards to how long we decide to work him out. We have to be smart with trying to get his weight down and his conditioning up."

Brown said he understands the fans concern over the situation.

"When you get the dunk and then they see him with the boot, you connect the dots," Brown said. "We appreciate the sensitivity of that given what this city has been through with big men."