Amile Jefferson hopped up from the bench with the rest of his teammates to celebrate Grayson Allen's buzzer-beater Saturday against No. 7 Virginia, but trailed the rush to mob to Allen because of the limitations of the walking boot still protecting his fractured right foot.
It's now been more than nine weeks since Jefferson suffered the injury in practice, and though the senior has made progress in his recovery, there's still no definite sense of when he'll be suiting up for the Blue Devils again.
After Duke's thrilling win Saturday, head coach Mike Krzyzewski said Jefferson has been unable to get back on the court for extended action without feeling discomfort.
“Here’s the thing—it’s healing great, but then we try limited basketball stuff at a slower speed and there’s pain," Krzyzewski said. "If he tried to play at full speed with that, then a knee is going to go or something else. He’s frustrated like crazy and we’re frustrated for him. He’s trying, but it’s not coming around.”
What, though, if the injury lingers? Jefferson appeared in the Blue Devils' first nine games of the season, but if he does not return for the remainder of the campaign, he would have appeared in less than 30 percent of Duke's contests, making him eligible for a medical redshirt and opening the door for the Philadelphia native to return to Durham for a fifth season next year.
For now, though, that's not the plan, Krzyzewski said. The goal remains to get Jefferson healed and back on the court this year—with this team.
"If he was not able to play, then we would ask for that and I think he would qualify for it, but that’s not somewhere I want to go right now," Krzyzewski said. "It’s been two months, though. That’s why what our guys have done is remarkable. It’s remarkable what they’re doing.”
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