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Gorgui Dieng out 4-6 weeks, surgery Tuesday

Rick Pitino

Louisville center Gorgui Dieng talks talks during a news conference as head coach Rick Pitino looks on the Battle 4 Atlantis NCAA college basketball tournament, Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012, in Paradise Island, Bahamas. Louisville plays Northern Iowa in the first round on Thursday. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

AP

On Sunday evening, Louisville announced that the reason that star center Gorgui Dieng was held out of the showdown with Duke in the title game of the Battle 4 Atlantis was because the big fella had broken the scaphoid bone in his wrist.

On Monday, Louisville announced the extent of the damage: Dieng will have surgery on Tuesday to insert a screw into his wrist, and he’s expected to be out of action for 4-6 weeks.

The bad news? The injury takes some of the luster off of the Kentucky-Louisville matchup, which is happening on December 29th. If Dieng is actually healthy enough to suit up, there’s not way that he’s going to be back to 100% by then. The good news? That’s really the only game where Louisville will likely be pushed without Dieng. They don’t play UConn or Syracuse until mid-January, and based on the way Memphis looked in Atlantis, the Cardinals may not need Dieng in that one.