Eye Injury Knocks Out Woolridge : NBA: The Nuggets’ top scorer will undergo surgery for a detached retina. He might miss two months.

Denver Nuggets forward Orlando Woolridge, enjoying his finest NBA season and among the league’s top scorers, was to undergo surgery today to repair a detached retina in the right eye that could sideline him as long as two months.

Doctors said it was too early to determine the severity of the injury or the exact recovery time that would be required, but a team physician speculated that Woolridge could miss up to two months of the season.

Woolridge, who is tied for third in scoring in the NBA with a 29.0 average, apparently sustained the injury in a collision during Denver’s game against Phoenix on Saturday.

He had complained of blurred vision the past few days. When the Nuggets returned from San Antonio on Thursday, Woolridge consulted an eye specialist, who confirmed the detached retina.

“This is a huge blow to our team,” Nuggets General Manager Bernie Bickerstaff said. “Orlando was enjoying the finest season of his great pro career and one of the finest individual seasons of any player in the NBA. . . . This hurts.”

Woolridge, obtained from the Lakers on Aug. 3 for second-round draft choices in 1993 and 1995, led the NBA in scoring for much of this season and had played in all of Denver’s 23 games.

A former first-round pick of the Chicago Bulls, Woolridge also played with the New Jersey Nets. He averaged more than 20 points per game for three straight seasons during the mid-1980s, and was the Lakers’ leading scorer off the bench last season with a 12.7 average.