This morning on the Duke Basketball Report, a daily radio segment where Bob Harris interviews Coach Mike Krzyzewski, the topic was injuries and health. Obviously, Ryan Kelly is out indefinitely and Krzyzewski addressed the lack of a time frame put on Ryan’s recovery. You can listen to the full interview here.
With Ryan, it’s really an indefinite period of time and we’re not trying to be evasive or anything like that. We don’t know. If we knew, we would put a time frame on it. When you don’t know and you put a time frame on it, you create pressure that shouldn’t be created.
This is perfectly reasonable, and I don’t see any reason why there should be a definitive time set on Ryan’s return. He’ll return when he’s healthy.
Coach K went on to give more information regarding the rehab process.
He’s on crutches not because [he] needs to be on crutches because [he's] so hurt, but to reduce stress in his foot. That helps the healing process. He’s in a boot, not a cast, because he can then workout in water and can be worked on on a day-to-day basis. When you’re coming back from an injury, it’s not just the site of an injury, it’s everything that leads to the site of an injury If you completely immobilize, the tendons that lead to the muscle can atrophy and you have to keep them alive.
Seth Curry has been fighting a right shin injury all season and turned his ankle towards the end of the NC State game on Saturday. There was some concern that he could also miss extended time. Coach K put those fears to rest.
With Seth, he should be back in practice some today and then he won’t practice tomorrow, which happens a lot the day before a game. He’s been remarkable in how he’s done this and our team’s been remarkable. He just doesn’t practice much. He can’t. And we have to try and keep our timing and his timing all together and try to stay and play at the top level, which we’ve been able to do very well pretty much the whole season.
Krzyzewski expounded on the dance that the team and coaching staff have been on the whole year. Because Duke has been so successful for so many years, when they are it doesn’t feel like that much work has to go into it. But when teams face adversity, it gives them (and us as fans) a chance to see what they’ve been trying that is/isn’t working as well as it could. What Krzyzewski says about Curry and the team’s journey dealing with his injury and lack of practice time is illuminating.
This has not been an easy thing for this young man and for the whole team. We have to continue to manage it, but having Ryan’s injury along with it — you don’t have a lot of guys that practice. We only have ten guys that suit up and only eight of them that can play. It’s not a juggernaut, and it hasn’t been. Hopefully, we can keep the ship here afloat and travelling in the right direction.
