Raymond Felton hopes to return by January 26.

The Knicks' trip to London serves as not just a vacation/chance to bond/chance to play in front of a foreign crowd/chance to eat strange meat pies, but a chance to kill time while injured players get healthy. Chief among the wounded is Raymond Felton, who's now three weeks out from fracturing his right pinky on Christmas Day. After a couple days of confusing, conflicting semi-reports, we have a straight answer from Raymond on when he hopes to return. Via Marc Berman:

Raymond Felton took off his pinky brace to practice limitedly with team. Said he's shooting for the game in Philly in late January.

It would be so nice to have Felton healthy for the Nets and Celtics games before that, but anything by the end of January is good news, right? And again, that game is on the 26th, which is ten whole days from now, but would mean just three more Felton-less games if his timetable holds up. This trip is a godsend.

Anyway, glad to hear it, Raymond. Get that flipper right. We look forward to you returning and everyone moving back into a more natural role.

In the meantime, NOBODY ELSE GET HURT. YOU ARE FORBIDDEN.

Update:

"They're not letting me play when we first get back (to New York)," he said on Wednesday. "I am trying to get them to have me play in Boston (on Jan. 24), but it looks like Philly in Philly. We don't know if it's totally healed. We need one more X-ray, but it's pretty much healed."