HOUSTON, United States - Yao Ming's return to the National Basketball Association from a broken right leg might take longer than expected, Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said.

Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy told the Houston Chronicle that the return of Chinese star Yao Ming, seen here in 2006, from a broken right leg might take longer than expected. [AFP]

Van Gundy told the Houston Chronicle said the Chinese superstar center has not practiced well with a brace on the injured leg.

Yao broke a bone under the right knee on December 23. The Rockets have said they expect Yao to return to games by mid-March to late March.

"What we've seen in the brief things he's able to do with us, you get the sense he's a lot further away from playing NBA basketball than maybe the timetables would suggest," Van Gundy told the newspaper.

"He does not look comfortable at all with the brace. He does not look agile. To me, he looks like we have problems to solve there to get him back.

"He has to wear this cumbersome brace. He feels that's a huge issue to his mobility, to his jumping, to his natural running gait. He's worrying about hurting something else because of the change to his natural running gait.

"There are a lot of issues I think right now. He doesn't look like he did last year when he came back."

Yao has struggled to become comfortable with the brace as his leg muscles change to combat atrophy, finding it as tough as when he was forced to where an arm brace two seasons back.

"I had a lot of trouble with that and that was on my arm," Yao said.