Tyrese Haliburton will have to be away from the Pacers for two to three weeks after he was diagnosed with shingles, head coach Rick Carlisle told reporters on Sunday.
Haliburton has already been rehabbing from a torn Achilles that he suffered last season during Game 7 of the NBA Finals, which has kept him off the court this year.
“He will likely make a full recovery,” Carlisle said before the Pacers fell to the Mavericks, 134-130. “This happened over the last few days. He was meeting us in D.C. and had some odd symptoms. It’s a unique case, a unique situation. I’ve talked to him a few times, and he’s always in a good mood, so he’ll get through it. But trying to survive at a high level without a guy like that is extremely difficult.”
Shingles is not a life-threatening condition, but the viral infection can cause a painful rash, according to the Mayo Clinic.
“Shingles can occur anywhere on your body. It typically looks like a single stripe of blisters that wraps around the left side or the right side of your torso,” according to the Mayo Clinic website.
Carlisle said that it was “a very painful thing.”
The news is another blow to Haliburton and the Pacers, who have felt his absence hard during this season.
After falling one win shy of an NBA championship, the Pacers have had one of their roughest seasons in recent memory.
With Sunday’s loss, the Pacers are 15-43 on the season and went through a franchise-worst 13-game losing streak that was snapped last month.
The Pacers were also hit with a $100,000 fine earlier this month after the NBA docked them for sitting several players during a Feb. 3 game that “could have played under the medical standard in the Policy, including by playing reduced minutes. Alternatively, the team could have held the players out of other games in a way that would have better promoted compliance with the Policy.”
