Manu Ginobili’s injury-plagued season just got worse.

The San Antonio Spurs announced today that an injury to his right leg suffered during the Spurs’ loss to Cleveland on Friday, was worse than expected.

The 31-year old Ginobili felt stiffness in his leg during the game, and left after scoring just 4 points.

An MRI and CT scan done today revealed that Ginobili has a stress fracture that will force the 6-6 shooting guard and reigning NBA sixth man of the year to miss the remainder of the NBA regular season and playoffs, severely hampering San Antonio’s championship prospects.

Dating back to last season, it’s been a rough year for the Argentine superstar,  whom originally suffered the ankle injury in the 2008 NBA Playoffs. He then re-injured that same ankle in the Beijing Olympics.

After offseason surgery to repair the ligament, Manu was forced  to sit out the first 12 games of the 2008-09 NBA season.  He returned, but the same bum ankle caused Ginobili problems around the All-Star break in mid-February 2009.  He would miss 19 straight games before returning in late March.

Manu would play only five games before tests showed increased narrow edema and stress fracture in his right distal fibula

Ginobili has played in just 44 games this season, and averaged 15.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.5 steals, but has lacked explosiveness and rhythm all season long.

Links and Resources: Stress fracture sidelines Ginobili for season (Yahoo!), The Top 15 International NBA Players of the 2008-09 Season (Interbasket)