Losing Bonzie Colson for two months is bad enough. A team losing its best player, an All-American and national player of the year contender, is already facing an uphill battle. To lose your second-best player to injury, too, well, that’s just cruel.
It’s also reality for Notre Dame.
The Fighting Irish will be without guard Matt Farrell on Saturday at Syracuse due to an ankle injury, coach Mike Brey said on his radio show, according to Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune.
#NotreDame coach Mike Brey confirms on radio show tonight that PG Matt Farrell will not make trip to Syracuse for Saturday's game because of sprained left ankle....#nosurprise
— Tom Noie (@tnoieNDI) January 5, 2018
Farrell rolled his ankle in the first half of the Irish’s 88-58 win over North Carolina State on Wednesday, and did not appear in the second half.
“He’s got some swelling,” Brey said after the game. “It’s one of those that I don’t think is going to be ready. I would hope that he’d be healthy to play Wednesday in Atlanta (against Georgia Tech).”
Farrell is averaging 15.9 points and 5.1 assists this season, and was likely to be the one to carry an increased workload with Colson out due to a broken foot.
“That group is so confident and upbeat,” Brey said. “Bonzie’s been down a day and we’re practicing and then Matty goes down and then T.J. Gibbs, you just see him and Rex (Pflueger) go, ‘OK, we’re running this now.’
“That’s the culture of the program.”