Newark, NJ, USA: Duke Blue Devils men’s basketball guard Caleb Foster fractured his right foot and will be sidelined for the foreseeable future after undergoing surgery, head coach Jon Scheyer said on Tuesday.
Foster suffered the injury in the first half of top-ranked Duke’s 76-62 win over North Carolina Tar Heels men’s basketball in the final game of the regular season on Saturday. Scheyer said the junior point guard had surgery on Sunday morning.
Duke earned a bye into the quarter-finals of the Atlantic Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina and will begin play on Thursday, but Foster will not feature.
Scheyer said the team had not ruled out a possible return during the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament if Duke make a deep run.
“He’s on the road to recovery,” Scheyer said. “In his mind, in our mind, we’ll do everything we possibly can with our mindset to continue to advance, where we can give him a shot to come back when it’s all said and done. But he is going to be out for a foreseeable time here coming up.”
Scheyer added that Duke would likely need to reach the Final Four for Foster to realistically have a chance of returning.
The Blue Devils (29-2) will also be without centre Patrick Ngongba II, who is recovering from a right foot injury, leaving the team with a shortened rotation. Freshman Cayden Boozer is expected to move into the starting lineup at point guard.
Foster appeared in all 31 regular-season games, averaging 8.5 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 25.4 minutes per game while shooting 44.2% from the field and 40.2% from three-point range.
