Brooklyn Nets’ Ben Simmons was recently ruled out indefinitely with ongoing leg pain from a lingering “back injury.” Simmons has a long history of back issues, although it’s not known if this new issue is in any way related to previous problems. Lumbar spine problems have ended the last two seasons early for Simmons, who underwent a microdiscectomy back in 2022. However, has continued to struggle with bouts of leg pain/symptoms related to ongoing nerve compression in his lumbar spine.

On this episode of TheAthleteSpine, we dive into the mysterious spine journey of Ben Simmons. Most notably, although the media has continued to blow up this story each time he sits out — what Ben is experiences, is certainly not uncommon in our world.

We take some time to describe how a disc herniation causes leg pain, numbness, tingling, and potentially weakness. Although pain is the most common presentation, weakness is usually the greatest concern and what brings athletes (and all individuals) to our offices. There are many ways to quickly check the strength of various muscles in the legs that are innervated by some of the nerves that may be compressed in the lumbar spine. We demonstrate some of our most common exam maneuvers that we can quickly perform in the office as well as tests that everyone can perform at home!

Ongoing symptoms in the leg(s) after a microdiscectomy procedure (see our video clip) can be multifactorial. Some common causes could be: ongoing nerve compression after surgery, the formation of scar tissue, reherniation at the same level as a prior disc herniation (or at a different level) or instability that of the spine at the level of the prior surgery. Enjoy!

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