After tests during the Thanksgiving holiday revealed Erik Murphy had a torn meniscus, the Gators were grateful to learn this week their starting forward’s knee injury was not as severe as originally thought.
Coach Billy Donovan said the swelling in Murphy’s right knee is due to a bone bruise. The tear that showed up in an MRI and X-rays on Saturday was from a prior injury Murphy suffered as a sophomore in high school.
When Murphy was 16, his doctor decided he didn’t need surgery to repair the torn cartilage. The confusion over the state of his current injury ended early this week once Florida’s doctors received the old test results from Jay Murphy, Erik’s father, and compared them with the most recent tests.
“Erik’s dad [and the doctors] did a really good job of putting their heads together and trying to gather all of the information before they made any decision because it was during Thanksgiving when this happened,” Donovan said. “At least right now, everybody is on the same page in terms of what they’re doing rehab-wise. And then we’ll see how he responds the next couple days.”
Donovan said Murphy will not have to undergo surgery and that it should take him 10-14 days to recover from his injury. Wednesday was Day 7.
While Murphy will not play at No. 4 Syracuse (7-0) on Friday, Donovan could see him being ready to play when No. 10 Florida (5-1) hosts Arizona (5-2) next Wednesday.
“He actually can get back to doing as much as he’s capable of withstanding, so I don’t know if he’ll be back to full practice right away, but definitely he’ll be put in a situation where he’s getting a chance to run, move laterally, shoot, all of those kind of things,” Donovan said.
Murphy missed Florida’s last two wins against Jacksonville and Stetson, but he was walking without crutches on Wednesday.
In his first four games as a regular starter, Murphy averaged 10 points and four rebounds. While he is shooting 57 percent from three, it is the 6-foot-10 Murphy’s length that will be needed most against the Orange this week.
Syracuse boasts two starting big men in 6-foot-9 Rakeem Christmas and 7-foot Fab Melo. Without Murphy, the Gators have relied heavily on 6-foot-7 forward Will Yeguete to help carry the rebounding load along with center Patric Young.
Yeguete, a sophomore, played a career-high 26 minutes and had his first double-double Monday against Stetson with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
“This will be a different kind of challenge because, one, we played in Columbus against a top-five team with Erik,” Donovan said. “Frontcourt-wise we had somebody that can deal with (Ohio State forward Deshaun) Thomas. This is a little bit different with Fab Melo and Rakeem Christmas. … So even when we’ve played some four-guard lineups, this will be the first time we will have faced a team with this kind of length being a little bit limited size-wise across our front line.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
UF forward Erik Murphy’s knee injury is not as severe as the team originally thought. The junior will miss Friday’s game at Syracuse, but could return against Arizona next week.
