Joel Embiid’s long-awaited debut is likely to be delayed another season as his injured foot continues to be a lingering issue.

The Philadelphia 76ers’ young centre has suffered a potentially career-threatening setback which will require another surgery, this time a bone graft procedure expect-ed to keep the 21-year-old out for the entire 2015-16 campaign.

“We have been consistent in our philosophy that our focus will be Joel’s long-term health and wellness to ensure he will have a long and impactful career in the NBA,” 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie said in a statement.

“A collective decision has been made that the best approach to promote full healing would be to proceed with a bone graft of the fracture site. We anticipate the procedure will take place in the next 7-10 days and result in Joel missing the upcoming season.”

After being selected third overall in the 2014 NBA draft by Philadelphia, the seven-footer had to sit out his rookie season following a surgery to repair a stress fracture in his foot which he had before the draft.

Embiid also dealt with back injuries in his lone season at Kansas, but the 76ers were willing to gamble on the promising prospect after he slipped to No 3 in the draft, despite his injury red flags.

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Embiid appeared on-track to recover towards the end of this past season when he displayed his skill-set and athleticism during practices and pre-game warm-ups.

Though he wasn’t experiencing pain his foot, test results last month showed the healing wasn’t progressing. Philadelphia said they conferred with foot and ankle specialists from New York, North Carolina, Colorado, California, Pennsylvania, Australia, Qatar and the Netherlands before deciding what to do next.

“This group of experts unanimously agreed that the routine CT scan in June did reveal less healing than anticipated, an unexpected result since Joel was not experiencing any foot pain,” Hinkie said.

Whether they were aware of the severity of Embiid’s setback or not at the time of the recent draft, Philadelphia took another centre in Jahlil Okafor with their third pick instead of filling other positional needs.

The team will determine which doctor will perform the procedure on Embiid in the coming days.