Duke forward Ryan Kelly will be out at least two weeks after sustaining a foot injury in the Blue Devils’ blowout victory over Clemson on Tuesday at Cameron Indoor, the school announced in a statement.
Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com is reporting that Kelly aggravated the same injury he suffered last season. The team reportedly optimistic that he could miss as little as two weeks, but the timetable for his return is likely closer to four weeks.
The injury is to his right foot, the same foot that he sprained last season, which subsequently forced him to miss the ACC and NCAA tournaments. He had surgery on the foot in late March 2012.
According to the Raleigh News & Observer, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski is unsure exactly when Kelly injured the foot, other than that it happened during the first half of the win over Clemson and it forced Kelly to miss the entire second half.
“We’re hopeful that it’s not real serious,” Krzyzewski told the paper. “But for precautionary reasons, we felt that it wasn’t good to play him in the second half.”
If Kelly is to miss a significant amount of time, if would mean a big blow to the No. 1 Blue Devils, who are one of just four remaining teams with an undefeated record. As Duke remembers from the time Kelly sat out last season, his ability to space the floor and draw defenders away from the basket is key to the flow of the overall offense.
He is the team’s second-leading scorer with 13.4 points per game and is also the team’s second-leading rebounder with 5.4 rebounds per game. He was named the ACC Player of the Week on Monday.
In his place, freshmen Amile Jefferson and Alex Murphy will likely be counted on for more production, as will junior Josh Hairston.
Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_