Karl-Anthony Towns’ knee injury is common — but not to be taken lightly

Karl-Anthony Towns’ knee patellar tendinopathy is very common among basketball players and most often treated conservatively with physical therapy.

But it can also be debilitating and lead to further damage or surgery, according to an expert surgeon.

“It’s the most common injury I see in basketball athletes. It’s not even classified as an injury half the time because it just kind of exists and people live with it,” Dr. Abi Campbell, the director of NYU Langone Center for Women’s Sports Medicine, told The Post. “The fact that it’s flared up so severely that he’s had to take time out either points to the fact that it’s cautionary in order to maintain him for the next set of games. Or, it’s having such a severe flare-up that he’s not going to be able to play at full capacity and he has no other option but to come out.

“If that’s the case, I think that in the offseason the only option is to have it fully addressed because it seems like it’s been lingering and not getting better.”

Towns missed two games this season with patellar tendinopathy in his right knee — one on Dec. 7, the other on Monday — and was listed as questionable for Wednesday’s game against the Raptors with the same ailment.

As Campbell explained, patellar tendinopathy is “microtearing of the tendon” and a “chronic issue,” with a recent study linking the injury to between 80-90 percent of college athletes after their seasons.