OAKLAND, Calif. -- Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Sunday that a spinal fluid leak led to his leave of absence from the team.
The leak occurred during his July 28 back surgery on a ruptured disk, he said.
"I had a spinal fluid leak during the first surgery," he told the media Sunday at the Warriors' practice facility. "It's very rare, it does happen occasionally, but it happens when there's an accidental nick of the dura that surrounds the spinal cord. But I lost spinal fluid, took about a month to figure out what was going on, a lot of headaches, some other symptoms."
After the leak became apparent, Kerr had an additional surgery Sept. 4 to repair the issue.
"The leak is fixed, but still getting some symptoms, but that's why I'm out," he said.
Kerr said he is feeling better.
"I wanted to just tell you guys what I'm going through, what's happened. Because I think there's kind of a gray area, people wondering what's going on," he said.
However, he would not put a definitive timetable on when he'll return to coaching the defending NBA champions.
"It's a matter of your body sort of recalibrating," he said. "Unfortunately, it's not like a sprained ankle, one to two weeks. There's no telling. It's a little bit open-ended, but everyone's confident I'm going to be fine. That's where I am. I'm not going to be put a timetable on when I'm going to come back."
