ATLANTA – Paul George enjoyed the local delicacy – also known as a Chick-Fil-A sandwich – from his locker at State Farm Arena late Monday before donning a navy 76ers tracksuit and heading to the second charter bus bound for the airport drove.

The only visible reminder of what pulled the All-Star wing off the floor during his team's preseason win over the Hawks was the black sleeve on his left knee. He felt himself hyperextending after pushing the ball away from Atlanta's Jalen Johnson and then trying to take a step to “break through” a gap. His first thought was, “Okay, I have to go out and check this out.”

But while George expressed his disappointment at the “very valuable” on-field time he might lose with his new team before the season opener on October 23, he calmly stressed that he was “not too worried” about the long-term forecast “I’m very worried.”

“Of course I’m in a new organization. I’m trying to build,” George said. “We have so much growing pains to deal with and (just) so much time to learn and try to figure each other out. … That’s how (it stinks). It's unfortunate.

“But again, looking forward, I’m not too worried about what this injury will be. It will only take a little while.”

How much time? We'll see.

Jeff Stotts, a certified athletic trainer who tracks NBA injuries through his social media account “In Street Clothes,” posted late Monday that the term “hyperextension” is “more of a description of what happened to the knee, as an actual diagnosis”. Injuries resulting from hyperextension can include bone bruises, ligament strains or capsular injuries, he added. While everyone has different recovery timelines, his data suggests the average absence for a player with that descriptor is 6.4 days.

George said he already received some treatment on Monday and will see how the knee responds Tuesday morning and “assess from there.” The overarching mood in the locker room after the game was not one of a team that believed the highly anticipated season was over before it began, but of a team that was ready to go three after a rare six-day road trip Playing in the preseason from Des Moines to return home to Boston, to Atlanta.

“We don’t need him right now, so let’s take him out of the game,” All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey said when asked about his initial reaction to George’s injury.

” READ MORE: Paul George hyperextends his left knee during the Sixers' preseason win at the Atlanta Hawks

But George's setback isn't ideal either. The most cynical observers would say this is why the Sixers never would have let two stars in their 30s with max contracts and extensive injury histories dream of championship dreams. For the more realistic players, it's another reminder that happy health and great victories are closely linked for any team and in any season.

One reason why this moment felt particularly cruel? This was followed by the Sixers' official announcement that Joel Embiid will not play in the preseason. It's part of the season-long management plan for the 2023 NBA Most Valuable Player following knee surgery in February and participation in the Olympics.

But the news already raised questions for coach Nick Nurse about his team's preparations without Embiid, who did not make this road trip and has not participated in practice since training camp began two weeks ago. The coach said practice still typically begins with practicing “all the Joel moves,” where the big man has to fend off double teams and teammates have to operate around him. Nurse also shared that he had “cancelled” that section for Monday’s shooting.

“We still do some of those when (Embiid) isn’t there,” Nurse said, “because we have other guys that just need to learn the spacing, the cutting and all that kind of rhythm.”

” READ MORE: The Sixers are ruling out center Joel Embiid for the remainder of the preseason

Implementing George with Embiid and the dynamic Maxey was always going to take time and experimentation. In addition, there had to be regular absences of both players in order to regulate the workload, an interesting way to monitor the playoff placement at the top of the Eastern Conference. But even though the Sixers were systems-oriented in these early practices, Maxey also admitted Monday that teammates “just had to wait” to develop chemistry on the court, no matter how long Embiid and/or George were sidelined.

“When they come back, they can kind of play this system and do what they do,” said Maxey, who totaled 14 points and seven assists in Monday’s win. “That’s kind of where we’re at right now.”

Nurse added: “(We) try to work him into things and he wants to work his way into things too. This doesn’t give us a chance and hopefully everything will be okay so he can be back with us straight away.”

However, George is not the only player who needs to acclimatize.

Nurse was already tinkering with the lineup before George's injury on Monday, moving veteran guard Eric Gordon into the starting lineup ahead of forward Caleb Martin. Without Embiid, Andre Drummond and Guerschon Yabusele have made notable runs at center in their first four games. And rookie sharpshooter Jared McCain saw heavy minutes early in the preseason but didn't play in the first half on Monday.

When George will be able to rejoin this process has yet to be determined. But as the visitors' locker room emptied on Monday, one word from Kelly Oubre Jr. was fitting.

He was technically responding to the harassment of someone close to Martin and Kyle Lowry. But it could be applied to any external panic swelling around George's hyperextended knee.

“Relax,” Oubre said.