Seattle ? A day after an MRI found that he had a partially torn plantar fascia in his left foot, a disappointed Seattle SuperSonics forward Nick Collison hobbled onto the court Tuesday afternoon at the Furtado Center to chat with the media, his left foot in a protective boot and crutches under his arms.

“We were starting to play well, and I was playing pretty well,” Collison said. “It’s frustrating to have to sit, but I think with any injury it’s like that.”

“It’s just too bad for Nick,” Sonics coach Bob Hill said. “He was playing so well. That’s kind of been the theme of the year. We kind of get it going, and then something happens. Somebody gets sick, somebody gets hurt. But you’ve got to learn to play with who’s available.”

Collison said he had been feeling pain in his left foot the last couple of weeks, consistent with the early symptoms of plantar fasciitis, chronic pain in the foot and heel. The injury became far more serious during Sunday’s victory over the Utah Jazz.

“I went up for a rebound and my foot was kind of arched,” Collison said. “It put a lot of pressure on that point, and it seemed like it popped, right at that spot, and tore it.

“I didn’t know if I tore it, but I knew it was really sore. I went down the court one more possession, then the quarter was over and I went back to the training room. It became really sore back there and swelled up a little bit.”

The expected timeline is that Collison will miss approximately four weeks.