Watch CBS News

Marcus Smart Details Nasty Eye Infection: 'Thought I Was Going To Go Blind'

BOSTON (CBS) -- Marcus Smart traveled with the Celtics for their Christmas Day win over the Raptors in Toronto, a welcome sight for his teammates and Boston fans. Smart has now missed seven games with a nasty case of viral conjunctivitis, but as the Celtics guard explained Wednesday, the situation could have been a whole lot worse.

Smart has been sidelined since Dec. 6, when an allergic reaction and a really bad cold took a turn for the worse. He soon developed a virus that led to the infection in his eye, which soon spread to both eyes. As Smart explained from the Scotiabank Arena locker room in Toronto on Wednesday, doctors were concerned that he may lose his sight.

"I thought I was going to go blind for a while. I think it was the worst case of viral conjunctivitis that they've seen," Smart explained. "So, basically, I was a guinea pig to see how to handle this if it ever happens again to anybody else. ... It was the worst pain that I've been through in a very long time. I don't wish it on anybody."

Smart was in bed for much of the last two weeks, but that doesn't mean he was nuzzled up watching The Price Is Right. He couldn't pass the time by watching TV because the light would have caused too much pain.

"So it was painful, it was burning ... it was really hard," Smart continued. "I couldn't see. I had outdoor sunglasses everywhere. Even in the dark I was wearing sunglasses. It was that bad. Just every morning I would wake up just having sticky discharge coming out of my eyes, sealing my eyes shut. It was really just gross. It got so bad that my eyes, my eyelids started forming these mucus membranes, and they literally had to go in and pry the mucus membranes out."

It gets worse. Much worse.

"I actually have a picture that I showed the guys. It was pretty gross. I was bleeding tears every time they did it, for like a day," said Smart. "They did that for about four days straight. The first day was probably the worst, just because it built up so much that it started to scab under my eyelids, and they had to open the scab and then pull it out. It felt like they were putting needles in my eyes. They were using tweezers and vise grips to hold my eyes and actually get into my eyelids, the bottom and top.

"It was definitely some pain, and I never want to go through it again, and, like I said, I never want anybody else to go through it," he concluded.

Smart still has to take two sets of eye drops four times a day, which is down from the three sets he was initially ordered to take. But he is past the contagious part of his illness and has been cleared to begin working out again, so now he's starting to work himself back into game shape. That may take some time, since he lost some weight after not being able to eat for the first week with the virus.

But Smart said he's about "80 percent" at the moment, and the Celtics are confident that they'll have their defensive bulldog back on the floor by the end of the month.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.