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Florida guard will miss at least a few games with foot injury as team hopes for positive news

Southern v Florida

Southern v Florida

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Florida junior guard Eli Carter returned to action for the Gators at the start of this season as the former Rutgers transfer was looking good after taking a redshirt year to heal a fractured right leg.

Unfortunately, the 6-foot-2 junior guard went down with a foot injury in practice this week and was wearing a walking boot on the bench during Florida’s overtime win over Louisiana-Monroe. According to Adam Silverstein of Only Gators, the X-ray results to Carter’s foot were negative, but the team is fearing that he may have suffered a more serious Lisfranc injury.

Carter is scheduled to have a MRI on Saturday and Florida head coach Billy Donovan commented on Carter’s injury on Friday night. The injury for Carter is to his left foot, which is the opposite leg of his previous fractured leg.

“They’re concerned with a Lisfranc, whatever her name is or his name is, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard of Lisfranc,” Donovan said. “They want to look in to, I think, rule that out, or it’s just a mid-foot sprain. If it’s [a Lisfranc], from what I’ve heard, it’s a pretty extensive time he’s going to be off. And if it’s the other one, then they’re hoping 8-10 days. … We’re just hoping that it’s not the other thing. What I think they’re trying to do right now is dot their Is and cross their Ts, and I really appreciate our trainer and our medical team going to the Nth degree just to find out exactly what it is to make sure. I’ll have a lot more probably sometime [Saturday].”

Obviously, the hope is that Carter has a mid-foot sprain and he’ll miss a week or two at most, since Florida is already dealing with depth issues as Dorian Finney-Smith continues to miss time with a fractured non-shooting hand. Carter is averaging 14.5 points per game in two games this season and is a key piece for a Florida team that is struggling to play to its potential in the early season.

Either way, it looks like Florida will be without Carter and Finney-Smith during the loaded Battle 4 Atlantis next week and the Gators will need their other players to step up in order to compete in what could be the best in-season tournament college basketball has this season.

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