Olympiacos Lose Jean Montero for Six Months After Knee Surgery

By Taki Panos

Some news lands harder than a loss. A few hours before Friday night's home game against Olimpia Milan, Olympiacos announced that Jean Montero had undergone surgery to repair the lateral meniscus in his left knee and is expected to be out for six months. The club confirmed it on Friday, October 30, 2026, as Kathimerini and Eurohoops reported. For a team already stretched thin in the backcourt, this is the worst kind of update.

The club kept its statement short and warm. "Jean Montero underwent surgery today to repair the lateral meniscus in his left knee. He is expected to be sidelined for six months. The entire Olympiacos BC family wishes Jean a smooth and speedy recovery and looks forward to seeing him back on the court!" Olympiacos BC posted on X, a statement carried in full by Gazzetta and Kathimerini. Gazzetta noted the operation was carried out away from the spotlight, just hours before tip-off.

This injury has been building for a while. Montero told the medical staff about knee discomfort at halftime of the 105-100 overtime win in Barcelona, and he kept playing through it, as we covered when Olympiacos lost Fournier for 20 days. At that point Gazzetta and Sport24 described a sprained right ankle and a ligament problem in his left knee, and he was listed as doubtful. He has not played since, missing the Fenerbahce loss and the trip to Istanbul.

The first plan was to avoid the operating table. Ethnos reported that Montero first received platelet-rich plasma (PRP) treatment, which did not bring the expected results, and that the early estimates spoke of a simple arthroscopy and about a month out. Basketnews pointed to a Sport24 report on Friday morning that the conservative treatment was not working. The news of the surgery itself was first revealed by Dominican journalist Jose Nina Tejada, according to Ethnos and Cyprus Times.

For newer fans, here is why this hurts so much. Montero, born on July 3, 2003, in the Dominican Republic, signed a three-year deal with Olympiacos on July 8, 2026, according to the club's own announcement and Eurohoops. Valencia confirmed he left after the full buyout clause in his contract was paid. He was presented in the number 8 shirt, and the Reds clearly saw him as a long-term piece of the roster, not a one-season rental.

His résumé explains the excitement. Valencia said he played 131 games for the club over two seasons and helped win the Liga Endesa and the Spanish Supercup. Eurohoops reported that last season he led Valencia to the first Final Four in their history, made the All-EuroLeague First Team and was named MVP of the Liga Endesa finals. Olympiacos, the reigning European champions, moved early to get him, as to10 and Eurohoops both reported.

He had started well in red and white too. Montero averaged 15.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists across six EuroLeague games this season, per Basketnews and Ethnos, with Ethnos adding 1.2 steals in just under 24 minutes a night. Those are lead-guard numbers, and he was putting them up while still learning a new system under coach Georgios Bartzokas.

Now comes the long wait. Six months from October 30 takes us to the end of April 2027, which covers almost the entire EuroLeague regular season. Tejada wrote on X that the timeline could also keep him out of the Dominican Republic's next two qualifying windows for the 2027 World Cup, as Cyprus Times relayed, and that a return for the EuroLeague playoffs will depend on how his rehab goes. Nobody should circle a date yet.

The guard list was already short. Evan Fournier was ruled out for about 20 days on October 20, with a possible return against Dubai on November 12, as Sport24 and Gazzetta reported. Tyler Dorsey is out of the team for a month for disciplinary reasons, which is why the club moved quickly when Olympiacos signed John Konchar, the former Memphis and Utah guard. Konchar now looks less like insurance and more like a necessity.

There is some comfort in how this group has responded. On Wednesday, Olympiacos won 81-73 at Besiktas without Montero, Fournier, Dorsey or center Nikola Milutinov, as we reported in our Besiktas recap. "Right now we do not have players like Fournier, Montero, Milutinov, Dorsey, but we still have team spirit, we came to win, without looking for excuses," Bartzokas said afterwards, per Eurohoops (translated from Greek). That win left them 6-2, one game behind Panathinaikos at 7-1.

The schedule does not slow down. Olympiacos host Milan at the Sunel Arena on Friday night at 21:15 Greek time in round 9, per Gazzetta and ERT Sports, then welcome Red Star on November 6. Codi Miller-McIntyre, Cory Joseph and young Omiros Netzipoglou will carry heavy minutes until Fournier returns, and Sasha Vezenkov and the big men will need to keep scoring the way they did in Istanbul.

My take: this is a real blow, and there is no point pretending otherwise. Olympiacos built their summer around a 23-year-old guard who had just been one of the best players in Europe, and they will now have him for maybe a handful of games at the business end of the season. The silver lining is that a meniscus repair, rather than a quick trim, is usually done to protect the knee for the long run, and Montero is signed on a three-year deal. Patience now is the smart play. Get well soon, Jean.

Olympiacos have shown they can win ugly with a short bench, and they will have to keep doing it all winter. We will follow Montero's recovery and every Reds result through the EuroLeague race, so keep an eye on our Greek Sports section. Six months out, one long road back to Piraeus.

Sources: Olympiacos BC, Kathimerini, Eurohoops, Gazzetta, Ethnos, Basketnews, Cyprus Times, Valencia Basket, to10, Sport24, ERT Sports.

Image: Olympiacos crest, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).