"Rockets center Yao Ming is certainly done for the season. What's less certain is whether his career will end, too.

Rockets team physician Dr. Walter Lowe said Friday that surgery to repair a fracture in Yao's left ankle would be the "usual course of action" and "the smartest course of action." Surgery would require seven to 10 months of rehabilitation to return to the court.

Yao, 30, has not chosen a treatment plan and could opt to immobilize his left foot in the hope it heals on its own.

Either way, Lowe said Yao's latest stress fracture is not career-ending. It would not require the sort of reconstructive surgery Yao underwent in 2009. The pins used to help the fracture heal would also help prevent it from breaking again.

But Lowe could not say that if Yao came back he would not be prone to suffering another fracture.

"That's a question that doesn't have an answer," Lowe said. "Is this something I would say, 'Hey, you have no chance to ever play again.' No, absolutely not. "