Mike Conley empathizes with Derrick Rose on facial injury

Derrick Rose might not want to talk about the state of his facial injury or how it has affected his level of play since he had surgery to fix his fractured left orbital.

Another player who has suffered a similar ailment, however, has shed a little light on how difficult it is to come back from taking an elbow to the face.

USA Today Sports caught up with point guard Mike Conley, who sustained a near-identical injury to Rose's during last season's NBA playoffs. The Memphis Grizzlies' star admitted that he's still feeling the aftereffects from the injury:

“Still can’t feel my face in certain parts. It’s still numb. Having some symptoms, like when I touch different areas I feel nerves come on behind my eyeball. It’s weird,” Conley said. “Any injury (like that) can mess with your head, can mess with your confidence, mess with your mentality when you come out.”

Conley also sympathized with Rose's frustrations from having to be posted up at home recovering instead of practicing with his team:

“It’s really hard to be going 100 miles per hour and all the sudden have to stop doing everything, being laid up in a bed, not being able to move,” Conley said. “It’s very hard to prepare for something like that.”  

Rose was out for two weeks at the start of the season. Conley was back out on the court three games after surgery to try to help the Grizzlies against the Golden State Warriors.