The Los Angeles Lakers have announced that Kobe Bryant will not play again this season.
The shooting guard featured in just six games for the Pacific Division side this campaign, missing the start of the year with an Achilles injury before sustaining a knee fracture.
The team's trainer, Gary Vitti, told NBA.com: "With Kobe's injury still not healed, the amount of time he'd need to rehab and be ready to play, and the amount of time remaining in the season, we've simply run out of time for him to return."
The 16-time All-Star added: "I feel like killing everybody every time I go to the arena. I'm just on edge all the time. Yeah, I still feel it, probably more than anybody in the organisation does. I probably feel it more, and it drives me absolutely crazy.
"I don't want to say I'll be back at the top of my game. Because everybody is going to think I'm crazy, and it's the old-player-not-letting-go sort of thing. But that's what it's going to be."
It had been thought that the knee injury would keep Bryant out for six weeks, but the bone, which was fractured in December, has been slow to heal.
Sian Cowper
