The Chicago Bulls announced on Thursday that guard Lonzo Ball will have arthroscopic surgery on his injured left knee and will be out for six-eight weeks. Earlier Thursday, there remained a possibility that Ball might try to play through the injury, described as a ‘small meniscus tear.’

The decision for surgery was made after “an initial period of rest and targeted intervention.” Coach Billy Donovan said that Ball’s knee had not responded well to treatment: “We were giving him some therapy on his knee, there wasn’t a great response to that, so that’s when he left to come back from the trip in Memphis, and now they’ve switched to a different kind of treatment for him and they’ll see how that treatment works out, and then there’ll be another step after that if we need (there) to be. But right now it’s just more just trying to help him just get healthy.”

Ball has missed Chicago’s three most recent games, as has guard Zach LaVine, who suffered a knee injury of his own last Friday during a game against the Golden State Warriors. Neither will travel with the team for the Bulls’ upcoming three-game road trip.

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