Rubio has a Christmas wish: A healthy left ankle

Ricky Rubio is dreaming of an active Christmas.

It is a wish based more on emotion than fact, of course. The point guard is two weeks removed from a very nasty left ankle sprain suffered in Orlando. He is rehabbing the ankle two, sometimes three times a day. There has been no definite timetable established for his return.

But a guy can dream.

"I don't know," said Rubio, with crutches and a walking boot, after the Timberwolves practiced Thursday. "Maybe January or Christmas. My family is coming for Christmas, so I hope they can see me playing. But I don't know the time."

It was the first time since the Nov. 7 injury that Rubio had talked with the media. And while he remained mostly upbeat, he did admit the injury's timing was frustrating given how well he was playing. "I was feeling good," Rubio. "I think the best I've felt in the NBA. Especially the game in Brooklyn [14 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds]. I was feeling like I'd found my tempo."

But that changed when Rubio drove the lane in Orlando and felt a pop. The ankle started to swell, soon turning a nasty shade of blue.

"I was afraid," he said. "I thought something was broken. But, thankfully, nothing was broken. Thank God for that."

"It is what it is," he said. "We can't look back and take the injury back. So we just have to deal with it."

Of course things have changed. Rubio, who thinks of himself as a leader by example, won't be able to do that for a while. So the dynamic — and his approach — has changed.

"I have to be more vocal," he said. "My English is improving, so I can talk to [his young teammates] more often and they understand me finally."

But seriously, being a leader while injured isn't easy. "They're not in the heat of the battle," coach Flip Saunders said. "He's trying. What he can do is be a communicator with Zach [LaVine]. When Zach's on the bench and he's there, he can talk to Zach about situations. But it's tough to be a leader."

What Rubio has become is a fan. He joked he nearly re-injured his ankle Wednesday jumping up to cheer after Shabazz Muhammad's alley-oop dunk against New York.

"I'll push hard, but there are limits," he said. "I always want to go fast, but at the same time I want to make sure the steps I'm taking forward are the right steps. And, first of all, I want to make sure that my ankle is safe and I can play again."