Chris Bosh resumes taking blood thinners to battle blood clot

A person with knowledge of the situation says Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat has resumed taking blood thinners to treat a blood clot in his leg.

The person said Tuesday that Bosh began the new medication regimen with hopes that he can resume playing this season. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither the team nor Bosh has revealed anything publicly.

Typically athletes in contact in contact sports are discouraged from playing while taking blood thinning medication.

Bosh will spend "the next few days" reviewing options and no determination will be made about his playing status until he goes through more tests and evaluation, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Monday night. 

Bosh is Miami's leading scorer at 19.1 points per game this season. He said over the weekend in Toronto that he was optimistic about playing again this season.

Bosh pulled out of the All-Star Game and the 3-point contest over the weekend because of what he and the Heat described as a calf strain. He was shut down at the All-Star break last season because a blood clot had found its way to one of his lungs, and that issue is something that Bosh believes started as a calf problem.

He went to Toronto expecting to participate in All-Star weekend, then was examined there — presumably because of the calf pain — and the NBA subsequently announced on Friday afternoon that Bosh was withdrawing from the game and the 3-point event. Bosh remained in Toronto to cheer on his Eastern Conference teammates, then returned to Miami and met with team medical personnel Monday.

"The biggest thing is his health," Heat teammate Dwyane Wade said Saturday in Toronto, when the speculation was that Bosh was only dealing with a strain. "All in all, as I said last year, it's bigger than basketball. It's about his family and he has to make sure he does everything right. I want to make sure that he's doing whatever he needs to do to be healthy and get back on the basketball court whenever he's ready."

The fact that Bosh remained in Toronto, and was active over the course of the weekend, suggests he's at least optimistic that the problem — whether it's a clot or not — can be managed. He was on the bench for the All-Star Game, was in uniform for the team photo session pregame, accompanied Wade to a dinner that honored Kobe Bryant on Saturday night and moved around without any obvious difficulty.

Last year, that wasn't the case.

"I couldn't walk anywhere," Bosh said in September, describing how the clot affected him. "I was in too much pain."

Bosh has taken precautions over the last year to try and prevent the recurrence of a clot, including partnering with Janssen Pharmaceuticals — the maker of the commonly used blood thinner Xarelto — to educate people about the risks. After the clot last season was found, Bosh started taking that blood thinner for several months as part of his recovery.

Athletes in contact sports typically cannot play while taking blood thinners.