After posting career-high numbers last season, Tyler Herro‘s 2025-26 campaign has been marred with not one, but multiple injuries. Everyone placed the bulk of their expectations on the Miami Heat star after his All-Star outing. However, midway through this season, he has already missed 31 games, including the first 17. And on Monday, we received more dreadful news about the youngster.

Herro was unavailable for the Golden State Warriors game. He didn’t travel with the team. However, the bigger concern is that he will miss the entire five-game road trip with another major injury. According to Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald, the MRI results revealed a costochondral issue with his ribs.

After the Warriors game, the remaining matchups feature a Tuesday clash against the Sacramento Kings and a Thursday clash against the Portland Trail Blazers. In the remaining two away games, the Heat will face the Utah Jazz on Saturday and the Phoenix Suns on Sunday.

The Heat hasn’t pinpointed the exact cause or time of the injury, but it is likely to have occurred during the Boston Celtics game on Thursday. That’s because he was ruled out of the subsequent home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday.

“Costochondral refers to the joints where ribs connect to cartilage, and it can be a highly painful injury. The issue is often a matter of pain tolerance, and a timeline for Herro’s return currently remains undetermined,” Chiang added.

While Erik Spoelstra has tried to keep his team afloat without Herro, he really hopes for the youngster’s quick return. Herro getting injured again is a big setback, personality-wise, in the locker room, which has been deprived of his offensive contribution this season. But does it really matter?

How does Tyler Herro’s injury impact the Miami Heat?

The Miami Heat have been dealing with injuries all season. They missed Herro for the first 17 games due to offseason ankle surgery, 13 because of a toe contusion, and now at least two more games because of a rib contusion. They’ve also missed sixth man Jaime Jaquez Jr. and guard Davion Mitchell for a few games before Monday’s matchup. Erik Spoelstra was recently asked about Herro’s frustrating year.

“The one at the beginning of the year, that was just something coming into the season,” Spoelstra said of Herro’s fitness concerns. “You can’t control that, but there’s going to be daily stuff that happens with everybody. We can’t necessarily look at, because you missed a big part of the first year that you’re going to have your normal things that happen in an NBA season. This shouldn’t be long-term. We’ll just continue to treat him and see how he responds.”

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However, the coach’s comments came before the MRI results. With no timeline for Herro’s return announced, the Heat are once again gearing up for life without their All-Star player. Can the team survive? There is no clear answer.

So far this season, the Heat have been slightly better on defense when he’s off the floor. On offense, however, the Heat surprisingly have a rating of 108.32 with him and 112.30 without him. While they have negative net ratings both with and without him, it is worse with him (-5.34 vs -4.75), according to PBP stats.

There are genuine questions over whether Herro’s playmaking ability is still required in Miami. Norman Powell has taken the primary scoring duty and is averaging a career-high 23.8 points across 36 games this season.

However, given that Herro has played only 11 games, his diminished and inconsistent impact on the team’s performance isn’t surprising. He has proven to be an All-Star caliber player in the past. Bear in mind that he was eligible to sign a three-year $150 million contract extension last October, but decided to table those discussions after not getting close to a deal.

With Herro missing more than half of the games so far, Pat Riley might just be weighing the odds of adding a better value star to gain an advantage in the injury-riddled East.