Yao Ming hopes to play basketball again and hopes to do so with the Rockets.

“I’ll try continuing,” Yao said Thursday. “A lot will depend on this foot.”

Yao's contract will expire on June 30th and will become an unrestricted free agent.

“I like it here. I’m used to playing here,” he said. “I’m comfortable, really, really comfortable to play here, and I have my family here. I’m not really planning to leave.”

Daryl Morey would not discuss the team’s plans, but he was as clear about his preference.

“I hope Yao Ming comes back to play again,” Morey said, “and I hope that it’s here.”

“If he’s healthy and the doctors say he can play, of course we want him back again,” said Rockets owner Leslie Alexander.

The latest injury to Yao's foot is not considered career-ending and no complications from the previous procedure were found.

“While I believe this ‘if’ is a possibility I will not be able to come back and play, I will always tell myself I always did everything I could," said Yao.