Eric Gordon injury update: Hornets' G returns to team, eyes comeback

New Orleans Hornets' guard Eric Gordon, who has missed the first 25 games of the season with a nagging right knee injury, is set to rejoin his team in Louisiana, according to a report in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. An official determination of when Gordon will make his season debut for the Hornets has yet to be made, but he's hopeful to play in a game before the end of December.

Gordon, who spent the past month rehabbing in Los Angeles, played in only nine games for New Orleans last season after having arthroscopic knee surgery. His nagging ailments this season stemmed from a patella tendon disorder and bone bruises, according to the report.

"I had a lot of pain and all throughout my knee cap,'' Gordon told the Times-Picayune. "It shut down all my muscles around my leg from my calf to even my quads. So that's what I was dealing with and if I would have kept on going I would have had to undergo possible surgery.''

Gordon was acquired by the Hornets as part of the blockbuster trade that sent Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Clippers. He was retained by the organization as a restricted free agent this summer, when New Orleans matched a four-year, $58 million offer from the Phoenix Suns. The 6'3, 215-pound guard, who was drafted with the seventh-overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, averaged just more than 22 points and four assists per game two years ago with the Clippers.