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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO - With speculation and conflicting reports on his status swirling over recent weeks, DeMarre Carroll felt he needed to clear the air ahead of Wednesday's game and, truth be told, it was long overdue.

We hadn't heard from the Raptors' highest paid player since mid-January, two weeks after he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, and updates from the team have been few and far between. Naturally, this had raised some questions and, more importantly, some concerns. Would we see Carroll back on the court again this season?

While there are no guarantees when or even if he'll be able to make his much anticipated return, the injured forward finally shed some light on where he stands and, to the delight of an anxious fan base, the prognosis appears to be an optimistic one.

"Hopefully I’m going to try to play a couple games before the end of the season," Carroll told reporters. "That’s the goal. We’re going to try to ramp it up a lot this week to try to get some conditioning back."

"But the way I play, I play like a dog. When you play like a dog, you can’t go out there being passive. I don’t want to be a poodle out there. I want to be like a bulldog."

Before he can do that he'll have to progress further than his knee allowed three weeks ago, when his return seemed imminent. Carroll had ramped up his on-court work after practices, participating in light shooting and conditioning drills, even playing some one-on-one with assistant coaches. At the time, he and the team were targeting a late-March return to the lineup, but - as we learned Wednesday - his knee began to swell up again.

"When you have swelling, my initial thought was, that means something is wrong," Carroll admitted. "I just wanted to get it checked out. I didn’t want to put my knee at any risk."

Accompanied by Alex McKechnie, Raptors Director of Sports Science, Carroll went looking for a second opinion, and then a third, and then a fourth. "We've done a world tour, basically," Carroll joked. They traveled around the United States to see several specialists, just to be sure.

Once again, Carroll has been given the green light to resume on-court activity and, if everything goes according to plan this time, he should be able to make it back before the playoffs begin on the weekend of Apr. 16, just over two weeks from now.

Carroll, who had been back home in Atlanta tending to personal matters, was on the bench to watch Toronto pick up its franchise-record 50th win against his former team, the Hawks. It wasn't just the media or fans that were relieved to see the 29-year-old, his teammates each embraced him as he walked into the locker room. They too were left out of the loop, as Kyle Lowry explained Tuesday, and some clarity on this front should be helpful as they wrap up the regular season schedule.

“It’s good news," Lowry said following Wednesday's 105-97 win. "Now there's clarity and we all know what’s going on so we know what to expect. I think it’s just one of those things where now it’s no guessing games. It is what it is. Hopefully ramp it up and he can join us again. It’s always a good thing for our guy to come back and join us.”

“That’s a big boost," DeMar DeRozan added. "That’s definitely a big boost. I hope everything goes well. One thing about him is once he gets on the court, he’s going to play extremely hard. It can’t do nothing but be a boost for us.

"It’s easy. People always make it seem like it’s going to be a hard transition because we haven’t played with him for so long but we need him. We need him."

To DeRozan's point, Carroll, a low-maintenance player, shouldn't need much time to integrate himself into the lineup. After missing nearly three months, out since Jan. 3, it's probably not realistic to expect him to carry his usual 32-minute per night workload but, even on a pitch count, the Raptors could use his defensive expertise and ability to space the floor.

As for that speculation, Carroll said he's never considered the possibility that his season is done, and still won't.

"Never," he insisted. "After I hurt my left knee in the conference finals with Atlanta [last season] and I came back and I guarded [LeBron James], the best player in the world. So no, I never thought that. One thing about me is I'm gonna do anything I can to give myself an opportunity because this game isn't promised to you and I know that. After going through all the things I've been through I don't take it for granted so if you don't see me on the court you better be rest assured that I'm trying to get on the court."