Hockey has always been a sport known for its toughness. Players play hard and regularly hide injuries. It’s gotten to the point where NHL teams don’t even release real injury reports anymore. You suffer a “lower body injury,” which can basically mean anything from a hip problem to a broken toe.

It feels like we’re just an injury update or two away from the Sixers making this move.

The team announced Tuesday that stars Joel Embiid and Paul George will miss Wednesday’s home game against the Detroit Pistons. Both players will officially miss the first four games of the season, putting a huge damper on the situation after a very successful offseason.

In George’s case, it’s understandable that he may still not be ready to play. The 34-year-old hyperextended his left knee during a preseason game against the Atlanta Hawks just over two weeks ago. He was diagnosed with a bone bruise. Given his age and injury history, it makes sense to give the nine-time All-Star more time to recover. After Wednesday, the Sixers won’t play again until a home game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday evening.

As for Embiid, your guess is as good as mine.

And that’s the problem: Nobody knows what the hell is going on with the player on whom the Sixers’ title chances almost entirely depend.

Before head coach Nick Nurse was made available to reporters after practice on Wednesday, the team made a fairly general statement. When the nurse sat down to speak, the first question (of course) was about what Embiid and George could do in practice – a perfectly normal and valid question. The nurse said he would not answer and referred to the statement. Before another reporter could even ask a question, Nurse interrupted him and said he wouldn’t answer.

If the nurse is frustrated, that’s understandable. He certainly wants Embiid to play more than any fan or member of the media. But this rejection of legitimate questions only leads to more chaos. However, no head coach has signed on as an injury update correspondent someone from the Sixers must provide answers.

The former MVP is not playing. The team says it is not a new injury. So what the hell is this? Just a hint of transparency would go a long way, but here we are.

Embiid has had two meniscus surgeries on his left knee. For those unfamiliar with the function of the meniscus, it is essentially a shock absorber for your knee joint. What happens with a tear is that a small piece tears and irritates the knee like a hangnail. Depending on the tear, the surgeon will cut out a small piece of the meniscus, thereby relieving the pain. The problem is that the meniscus doesn’t grow back. Considering that Embiid has been through this twice – and is a very tall person – he knows how much meniscus there actually is to protect his knee. This is probably one of the reasons he has lost 25 to 30 pounds and wants to lose even more for more stability and stress distribution.

If that’s the case, why don’t you just come out and say it? We’re told the goal is to keep Embiid as healthy as possible so he’s ready for the postseason. Great! Most of the fans are on board there. But when a player who last played basketball on August 10 is not ready to play games more than two months later? You should expect this to raise red flags. Even the league is getting involved and punishing the Sixers for this obscure message. They basically had to rule out from the team that Embiid was suffering from a “left knee condition” – which doesn’t even provide much clarity.

We’ve talked so much about “the plan” but hardly any explanation of what “the plan” is. Was it “the plan” for Embiid to miss the first four games of the season? If things didn’t go according to “plan,” would they get along? If you don’t even provide the basic details of “the plan,” how can you expect people to be on board with it and have no questions? Perhaps the fans who shelled out big bucks for tickets to the home opener or Tobias Harris’ return would have liked this information. To put it bluntly, the team and the player have done little in the past to give themselves the benefit of the doubt.

If Embiid can play against Memphis on Saturday, look good, and then play (mostly) regularly, this could all go away. But the longer this drags on – and the more mysterious and nebulous the whole thing becomes – the more you open yourself up to concerns and conspiracy theories.

It’s all disappointing, but not surprising.

There is no new injury. It’s about “treating left knee injuries.”

Or, you know, a lower body injury.