METAIRE, La. -- Reinforcements are on the horizon for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Jrue Holiday will return to practice Thursday and play in his first game of the season Friday against the Portland Trail Blazers. The veteran point guard is expected to arrive in New Orleans on Tuesday and will not make the trip to Orlando for Wednesday's match-up with the Orlando Magic.
Holiday, 26, has been away from the team the whole season in order to tend to his wife , USWNT soccer star Lauren Holiday, who is recovering from the birth of the couple's first child and surgery to remove a benign tumor from the right side of her brain.