Eric Gordon admitted to having cartilage damage in his right knee. Hornets officials had only disclosed that a surgical procedure was performed to clean up his right knee.

“First off, you can label it as a bone bruise, or say so,’’ Gordon said. “Of course, it was a little more serious than that. It was a little bit of cartilage damage that came about, but nothing more serious than that.”

Gordon has not played since Jan. 4 and is expected to miss at least five more weeks.

“I had a little cartilage debris,” Gordon said. “That happens when you have damage to a cartilage, and that was that — and I needed it. I’ve never had surgery before. All you can do is listen to the doctors as far as moving forward, and I know the timing sucked, but no one knew how serious it was. We went through multiple doctors, and the only way we could find out is (to) go in there.’’