Suns’ Stoudemire out 2 weeks with eye injury

 TUCSON • When the Suns came here on Monday, the expected Amaré Stoudemire to miss about half of training camp.

Suns notebook: Defense shines in low-scoring scrimmage

They leave Saturday morning, faced with the prospect of him missing half the preseason.

After consulting with two eye doctors and still experiencing some blurred vision after Boris Diaw’s finger partially tore the iris in his right eye, Stoudemire said he will shut down totally for the next five to 10 days and will then need at least a week of practice before taking part in any preseason games.

“There is no bleeding in the back of the eye, but any working out right now would get his heart rate going and increase his blood pressure,” general manager Steve Kerr said Friday. “If he gets on the court by midweek (next week), we still have to get him in condition because he was down (for two weeks) with the sprained ankle. He’s missed a lot of time. He’ll need a good week of practice before we get him in a game.”

That wipes out the first week of preseason games — which begin Wednesday at US Airways Center against the Atlanta Hawks and concludes with a road trips to Utah (Thursday) and Palm Springs, Calif., (Saturday) for the outdoor game with Denver at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. And Stoudemire could miss more if the timetable has to be adjusted in any way.

Wearing dark sunglasses at Friday night’s Orange-White scrimmage, Stoudemire said he will likely wear goggles for the rest of his career to avoid going through the pain and anxious moments following the injury Wednesday night.

“I felt severe pain right away. I didn’t even know my eye was open because I saw nothing but darkness for two, three minutes,” Stoudemire said. “I was terrified. I was praying to God that I wasn’t blind in the eye. Slowly I started to see silhouettes but everything was very blurry.

“I could barely open the eye all day (Thursday). Today, the medication is taking away the pain and the blurriness is better. But my iris will never heal. I think I will wear goggles from here on out. I’ve been hit in the eye before and I don’t want to deal with this anymore. We’ll try them and see how it goes.”

Stoudemire hasn’t played in any of the three scrimmages in Tucson — the other two in 2005 and 2007 he missed due to knee surgeries — and was taking part in his first full-bore practice in the Old Pueblo when the injury occurred.

Coach Terry Porter has been throwing a lot of new information at the Suns this week — changing both the offensive and defensive philosophies radically — but two key members of the playing rotation haven’t been on the floor. Stoudemire has watched from the sidelines, but guard Leandro Barbosa missed the entire camp after flying to Brazil to be with his ailing mother.

“Amaré can’t do anything right now for about five days, and then we have to re-evaluate. Hopefully it won’t be longer,” Porter said. “But he’s a warrior and he’ll be ready when the time comes. It’s unfortunate not having Amaré and L.B. when everything is so new.”