Bulls F Patrick Williams to have season-ending surgery

Chicago Bulls forward Patrick Williams will undergo surgery on his injured foot that will keep him out the rest of the season, the team announced Friday.

Williams has been out since Jan. 25 with an acute bone edema in his left foot. At that time, Williams had already missed three games that month with foot discomfort and had been in a walking boot, and the Bulls said the injury required "active rest" for at least two weeks.

On Friday, the team said that "routine subsequent imaging (revealed) the progression of his foot stress reaction."

The injury has been especially frustrating for Williams considering he appeared in all 82 games, plus both play-in games, last season.

"It's definitely something you don't take for granted," Williams said in January of last season's perfect attendance. "It's a lot of luck that has to be involved in it to do that. A lot of routine work and maintenance work and luck, too. Good luck, bad luck, whatever the case may be."

Williams, 22, is averaging 10.0 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 43 games (30 starts) for Chicago this season. The Bulls selected him with the fourth overall pick of the 2020 NBA Draft.

The Bulls, at 26-30 and sitting in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, face the New Orleans Pelicans on the road Sunday night.