Surgery on O’Neal’s Arthritic Toe Is Set for Sept. 11

After more than two months of angst and analysis, Laker center Shaquille O’Neal has scheduled the surgery doctors believe will ease the pain in his arthritic toe for Sept. 11.

As expected, Dr. Robert Mohr will perform the surgery, called a cheilectomy, at UCLA Medical Center.

The recovery is expected to take about eight weeks, and O’Neal, the most valuable player of the last three NBA Finals, could miss most or all of training camp and some of the regular season.

The Lakers open their bid for a fourth consecutive championship Oct. 29 against San Antonio. If O’Neal’s rehabilitation follows its projected schedule--it varies from patient to patient and could take as much as a month longer--O’Neal would return within about a week of the opener.

A virus that gripped O’Neal in recent weeks looms as a potential complication. If he continues to show symptoms of the virus that forced him to be hospitalized because his body temperature spiked and liver swelled, the surgery would be delayed again. Perry Rogers, O’Neal’s agent, said Friday that the date was set assuming the virus would be diminished enough or eradicated in time for the surgery.

“Shaquille wants to get on with this,” Rogers said. “We can’t wait anymore.”

In cases such as O’Neal’s, bone spurs form on the top of the main joint in the big toe and can grind together when the toe bends upward, causing pain and limiting mobility.

The procedure is a relatively simple one in which the surgeon carves away the bone spurs on both sides of the joint so that they no longer rub together.

It usually lasts 20 to 30 minutes and can be performed under either a local or a general anesthetic in an outpatient operation. O’Neal’s will be done locally.

A year ago, O’Neal had surgery to correct a claw toe deformity in his left small toe. Because of that procedure and the onset of arthritis in his right big toe, O’Neal limped through much of last season, obtaining relief only occasionally, and often through consumption of anti-inflammatory medication he feared excessive.

Rogers said Friday that O’Neal has maintained a cardiovascular program during the summer and is lighter than he was at the end of last season.