Los Angeles Lakers rookie Julius Randle has just played his first game but he is already expected to be out for the entire season because of a leg break injury.

Randle, according to ESPN, broke his tibia when he drove to the basket and buckled on his right foot during the fourth quarter of the Lakers' 108-90 loss to the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night. Some of his teammates claimed that they heard something pop before the player went down on the court floor.

He was holding on to his right leg prior to the arrival of a medical team who wheeled him out of the court in a stretcher.

Doctors reportedly said that the team's top pick during the recent NBA draft "suffered a clean break of the tibia" which needed immediate surgery.

Coach Byron Scott told ESPN that what happened to their 19-year-old rookie is a "heartbreaking" experience.

"I saw the work that he was putting in. I saw the progression that he was making, the steps that he was taking to get better. And his first game, he goes down. I don't think anybody in that locker room is happy about the way we played, but we're even more saddened about the fact that we lost one of our young guys," he revealed.

The coach also said that he advised Randle to be strong especially now that he is being tested. "Adversity tests the true character of a man. This is some adversity that we're facing with a young guy being out, and obviously, it's something that he's facing. I feel for him. I feel extremely bad for him. He was kind of crying, and I just told him to stay strong and that it's going to make him a better basketball player."

Selected seventh overall during last June's draft, Randle showed immense ball skills prior to his recruitment to the team and this makes his teammates sad about his injury.

Kobe Bryant, for one, told ESPN that it was tough for him to deal with this kind if scenario. "For him being a 19-year-old kid, it's tough. That's what we're here for. We're here to pick him up and take it day by day," Bryant added.

Prior to his injury, Randle was still able to make two points during the 14 minutes that he played. A Los Angeles Times report said that the rookie Laker already underwent surgery on Wednesday morning at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and he is expected to make a full recovery later on.

In a recent announcement by the Lakers, the team confirmed that Randle will be out for the rest of the season to give time for him to recover from his injury.