Jeremy Lin injury update: Brooklyn Nets guard says he didn't rush back in December

Jeremy Lin, the Brooklyn Nets point guard, has aggravated his left hamstring while rehabilitating from the injury that has sidelined him for most of the season, per reports.

As a result, the 28-year-old is ruled out for approximately three to five weeks, Nets general manager Sean Marks told reporters Monday ahead of Brooklyn's blowout loss to San Antonio Spurs at home.

Lin, who departed from the Charlotte Hornets to sign a three-year, US$38 million (AU$51 million) contract with the Nets during the offseason, has appeared in only 12 of Brooklyn's 44 games due to recurring hamstring injuries. Following his initial injury on Nov. 2, just five games into the season, Lin missed a total of 19 games. Thereafter, he aggravated the same injury on Dec. 26 against the Hornets and hasn't returned to the court since.

On Monday, Lin wrote a lengthy post on his Facebook page to address his injury status. "Although this is the least severe of the three, this third injury has been a hard one to deal with mentally. There's something so draining about the yo-yo effect of going from injured to healthy to injured to healthy that in some ways it would have been easier to have an injury where I knew from the beginning I would be out for a long, set amount of time," wrote Lin, who is averaging 13.9 points and 5.8 assists in his seventh NBA season.

Jeremy Lin injury update: Did point guard rush back from injury?

According to several local reports, the Nets rushed Lin back during the game against Houston Rockets on Dec. 12 instead of letting the Asian-American guard recover completely from the initial hamstring injury. After that game against Houston, Lin began to find his groove during the losses to Orlando Magic (Dec. 16) and Philadelphia 76ers (Dec. 18) even as coach Kenny Atkinson kept him on a minutes’ restriction.

Lin shot down the theory that he was rushed back from injury. "People may ask if I rushed back. I can confidently say I didn't. I checked every single check box that needed to be checked before returning and progressed carefully through my rehabs. The reality is that even when we plan for things to go a certain way, sometimes God has other plans."

In Lin's absence, rookie Isaiah Whitehead is averaging 7.0 points and 2.8 assists as the Nets' starting point guard. Since entering the league in 2010, Jeremy Lin has played for six different teams including the Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, Charlotte Hornets and Brooklyn Nets. Stay tuned for the latest on Jeremy Lin's return date.