By JACOB POLACHECK
Oregon freshman big man Bol Bol is expected to miss the remainder of the 2018-19 season due to a left foot injury, he announced via Twitter Thursday. He has missed the team’s last four games.
“Playing for my dream school under my favorite coach [Dana] Altman has been the best part of my life and sadly it has come to end sooner than I would like,” said Bol via Twitter. “But thank you for all those who [are] rocking with me and [to] all [the] Oregon fans, thank you #GoDucks.”
According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, Bol is expected to “be good to go for pre-draft workouts but is unlikely to risk coming back late in the Pac-12 at less than 100%”.
Bol is likely going to begin rehab work ahead of the 2019 NBA Draft with basketball and medical trainers outside the Oregon basketball program. Despite the injury, Bol is still expected to be a top ten pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.
“He’ll be ready to go by the time pre-draft rolls around. He’ll get ready for the draft, he’ll do workouts. He’ll be healthy by then,” said Givony. “It’s not a Joel Embiid or Yao Ming type deal. It’s no that serious of an injury. The blessing for him is that he has really small feet for a guy his size.”
Through first nine games of the season, Bol averaged 21 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks per game, leading the team in all three categories.
“Too bad for Oregon. He has already established himself as a lottery pick so if he is injured then there is no reason to return to school,” an NBA executive told ZAGSBLOG Thursday.
Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter
