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Joel Embiid playoff injury history: Games missed, postseason stats, more on 76ers star inability to stay on the court originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
When he's on the floor, Joel Embiid has regularly been one of the most dynamic offensive players in the NBA, especially as a scorer.
Currently the all-time leader in points per 36 minutes in NBA history (31.24), there hasn't quite ever been a talent quite like the Philadelphia 76ers center. But at age 32, Embiid's dominance has continued to be overshadowed by his availability.
Not only has Embiid missed a ton of regular season games throughout his career, including most of the 2024-25 season and his first two full seasons, but every time the postseason has come around with Philadelphia in contention, the star center has dealt with some kind of ailment.
From wearing masks due to broken face bones, to his most recent condition with appendicitis ahead of the 2026 playoffs, Embiid has either been sidelined or playing through injuries for a collection of 76ers playoff games.
Here's a look at his history of injuries around the time of the NBA playoffs.
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How many NBA playoff games has Joel Embiid missed?
Of the 76ers' 66 playoff games since Embiid's first playoff run in 2017-18, the star center has missed seven. Philadelphia has made the playoffs in every year of Embiid's career — not including his sidelined first two seasons — outside of 2024-25, when he was out with a knee injury.
Here's the breakdown of Embiid's missed playoffs games:
- 2018: 2 (Missed Games 1 and 2 vs. Heat in first round)
- 2019: 1 (Missed Game 3 vs. Nets in first round)
- 2020: 0
- 2021: 1 (Missed Game 5 vs. Wizards in first round)
- 2022: 2 (Missed Games 1 and 2 vs. Heat in second round)
- 2023: 2 (Missed Game 4 vs. Nets in first round, Game 1 vs. Celtics in second round)
- 2024: 0
All things considered, Embiid playing in nearly 90% of the 76ers' playoff games in his career doesn't tell the full story. More often than not, he's been playing through some kind of pain in the postseason.
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Joel Embiid playoff injury history
Here's a look at the injuries Embiid has dealt with around the time of the NBA playoffs.
2018: Orbital fracture, concussion
Embiid's first playoff appearance was a bit of an omen for what was to come. In 2017-18, Philadelphia made a return to the postseason after winning 52 games, but Embiid's official playoff debut was delayed until Game 3 of the first round after he was diagnosed with an orbital fracture in his face and a concussion.
The star center had been in a collision with teammate Markelle Fultz that left a bone in his face broken. When he returned, he wore a protective mask over his face against the Heat and Celtics.
2019: Knee tendinitis, illness
In Embiid's career, Philadelphia may have had no better title shot than it did in 2018-19, winning 51 games with Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons before beating the Nets in the first round of the playoffs.
Embiid missed one game in that Brooklyn series, a Game 3 win, with knee tendinitis, which had caused him to miss eight games in the regular season.
He also then dealt with flu-like symptoms throughout the second round against Toronto, where the 76ers famously lost Game 7 of their second-round matchup against the Raptors due to Kawhi Leonard's buzzer-beater.
2021: Torn meniscus
After winning 49 games in 2020-21, the 76ers matched up against the Wizards in the first round. But after an awkward fall against Washington in Game 4, Embiid was diagnosed with a small tear in his right meniscus, which resulted in him being sidelined for the 76ers' series-clinching win over Washington in Game 5 of the series.
Embiid played through his injury in the second round against the Hawks, but the 76ers lost in seven games.
2022: Torn thumb ligament, orbital fracture, concussion
Philadelphia won 51 games in 2021-22, but the playoffs resulted in two injuries for Embiid.
First, Embiid injured his thumb in Game 3 against the Raptors in the first round. He played through the pain into Game 4, with reports indicating he needed surgery, but pushed it off until after the season.
Then, in Game 6 of the series, Embiid was hit in the face by Raptors star Pascal Siakam, and he suffered a right orbital fracture and a concussion — the second time in his career he was then forced to play with a mask.
Embiid missed Games 1 and 2 against the Heat in the second round due to his facial injuries, both 76ers losses, and they then lost the series 4-2. After the season, Embiid had surgery for his right thumb injury.
2023: Knee sprain
Philadelphia hasn't reached an Eastern Conference Finals with Embiid yet, but one of its closest chances came in 2023. The 76ers first beat the Nets in the first round, with James Harden leading the way, before taking the Celtics to seven games and losing in Game 7.
Embiid missed one game in each of those series due to a knee sprain. The injury came in Game 3 against the Nets, when Embiid contested a shot from Cam Johnson, then began limping.
2024: Bell's palsy
In 2024, with the 76ers claiming the No. 7 seed in the East via the Play-In Tournament and taking on the New York Knicks in the first round, Embiid played in the playoffs through a diagnosis with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis.
Still, he managed to stay on the floor throughout the series, never missing a game. Embiid wore sunglasses to the podium after he scored 50 points in the Sixers’ Game 3 win and said he was dealing with symptoms such as blurred vision and dry eyes. In Game 5, Embiid also recorded his first playoff triple-double with 19 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists and four blocks.
Earlier in the season, Embiid had also missed multiple months with a lateral meniscus injury in his left knee after the Warriors' Jonathan Kuminga fell on him while diving for a loose ball.
2026: Knee injury recovery, appendicitis
The 76ers were already being even more cautious than usual with Embiid in 2025-26, considering his injury history, lengthy recovery from knee surgeries over the last two years, and their hope that he could be healthy for the postseason, assuming they made it there. Embiid rarely, if ever, played in back-to-back games in 2025-26, but he played well when he was on the floor, averaging 26.9 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, including a January stretch where he played in 14 of 17 games.
However, Embiid missed some additional time in the regular season with knee soreness, a strained oblique muscle and a shin stress fracture. And just a week before Philadelphia was bound to begin its postseason run in the Play-In Tournament, the chances that Embiid would be ready to play to begin the playoffs were gone.
He got appendicitis while in Houston during the team's road trip, and got an appendectomy just days before the 76ers began their run to the postseason.
"What the hell, appendicitis?” Embiid's former coach, Doc Rivers, said after the center's diagnosis, per the AP. “You can’t make it up. You really can’t. ... It’s this time of year, right?"
Embiid underwent successful surgery, but was not expected to join the 76ers for their Play-In Tournament matchup against the Magic
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Joel Embiid playoff stats
Here's a look at Embiid's playoff numbers.
| Games | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | BPG | SPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
| 59 | 35.3 | 24.9 | 10.9 | 3.1 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 45.9% | 28.9% | 82.8% |
MORE: Full 2026 NBA Play-In Tournament predictions
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