Toronto Raptors forward Jorge Garbajosa underwent season-ending surgery Tuesday to repair the left ankle he broke in Monday's 95-87 loss to the Boston Celtics.

Garbajosa, 29, stayed overnight in a Boston hospital before flying back to Ontario to have the procedure performed by Raptors physician Dr. Paul Marks and foot specialist Dr. Johnny Lau at Toronto Western Hospital.

Jorge Garbajosa screams for help after breaking his ankle on Monday.
(Elise Amendola/Associated Press)

The successful surgery involved repairing a displaced left ankle joint, a torn ligament and a fractured fibula.

"We are pleased with the reduction of the fracture and restoration of his displaced ankle joint," Marks said in a statement.

"Everything is restored to an appropriate anatomic position and we will now await post-operative recovery and healing of the soft tissue and fracture," which he figured will take six months.

Garbajosa suffered the injury with 4:31 left in the fourth quarter when he was chasing down a dunking Al Jefferson and landed awkwardly on the ankle, which bent unnaturally.

Jefferson winced and immediately turned away in disgust as Garbajosa laid clutching his leg and screaming in pain.

"I haven't witnessed anything like that in person ever," Raptors forward Morris Peterson said. "I just had to turn my head, a lot of guys did.

"Thankfully, it's not career-ending. It's nothing he cannot bounce back from."
 
Garbajosa was averaging 8.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 28.4 minutes in 67 games, including 60 starts, this season, his first in the NBA.

The Spaniard played 12 pro seasons in Europe before signing with Toronto last July 24.

"Jorge is one of those guys that you call a 'glue player,'" Raptors president and general manager Bryan Colangelo said. "They are guys that make basketball plays all the time, the right decisions."

Injuries impact playoff push

The loss of Garbajosa and the uncertainty surrounding fellow rookie Andrea Bargnani, who underwent an appendectomy last week, will prove challenging to the Raptors as they try to clinch their first Atlantic Division title and their first playoff berth since 2001-02.

Calderon and Anthony Parker recently missed games because of left ankle sprains, too. 

"We cannot get down, we have got to keep going," Parker said. "We've come a long way in this season and everybody's helped us to get this far and we've just got to make that final push."

"We are going to miss Garbo," Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell noted. "He brings a lot to our team, but that's just how it is.

"We hope he has a speedy recovery and gets healthy and be ready to play next year. Right now, we've just got to move forward.

"What are we supposed to do, fold up our tent and quit and go home? We did not do that when Chris [Bosh] was hurt, we haven't done it with Andrea out, we didn't do it when T.J. [Ford] was hurt and we're not going to do it now."

"It's not something that you want to experience at this point of the season," Colangelo said. "It's unpredictable and you try to do what you can to overcome things and that's what the team's focus is right now."

Toronto leads the second-place New Jersey Nets by six games with 12 left to play, including Wednesday's home tilt against the Miami Heat (7 p.m. ET).

With files from the Canadian Press