Sept. 12, 2003
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State sophomore guard Steve Sir is scheduled to have hernia surgery on Thursday, Sept. 18, San Diego State coach Steve Fisher said on Friday. He is expected to miss six weeks following the procedure, and is not likely to return to the basketball court before Nov. 1.
San Diego State team physician Dr. Greg Gastaldo indicated that Sir would be treated for what is commonly referred to as a sportsmans hernia.
"He had a chronic pain in his inner thigh and initially it was diagnosed as an adductors strain," Gastaldo said. "However as the pain became persistent, we did a number of different tests and none of them were positive. Finally due to the persistence of the pain and the location shifting we suspected it could be a sportsmans hernia."
Sir, who played in all 30 games and made seven starts during his freshman campaign, believes he first suffered the injury last September when he fell during a workout. After rehabilitation, he didn't miss any games due to the injury, but reaggravated it prior to the Aztecs' last regular-season game on March 8. Various off-season treatments to correct the problem have been unsuccessful, resulting in the decision to have surgery.
"I tried numerous treatments without success and hopefully having surgery will fix the problem," Sir said. "I want to return as soon as possible while still being cautious to make sure this injury does not linger any more than it has already. I am looking forward to being completely healthy for the upcoming season."
In his inaugural season at SDSU, Sir averaged 5.5 points, 1.1 rebounds and committed just 29 turnovers in 438 minutes of action. He made a team-high 46 three-point field goals last season while connecting on 40.4 percent of his three-point attempts during the 2002-03 season. He scored 18 points in games at Portland and against UC San Diego and reached double figures again when he tallied 17 points in the Aztec victory at Wyoming.
-SDSU-