DALLAS -- Los Angeles Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar flew home from Dallas Saturday, suffering from eye problems that will force him to miss at least two games, the team said.
The Lakers played the Dallas Mavericks Saturday night and they will not have Jabbar in the lineup when they meet the Houston Rockets Sunday.
Jabbar, who wears goggles to protect his eyes during play, is suffering from recurring corneal erosion syndrome in his right eye. He returned to Los Angeles following an eye examination in Dallas early Saturday.
Doctors explained that because Jabbar was poked in the eye so many times in the days before he wore goggles, scar tissue had formed on the cornea.
When the eye dries out, as it sometimes does in the pressurized atmosphere of airplane cabins, the scar tissue tends to flake and disturb his vision.
Jabbar, the NBA's all-time leading scorer, was to be re-examined Monday in Los Angeles.
