Duke point guard Caleb Foster fractured his right foot and is out for the “foreseeable time,” head coach Jon Scheyer said Tuesday.
Foster suffered the injury in the first half of No. 1 Duke’s 76-62 victory over then-No 17 North Carolina in the final game of the regular season on Saturday night. Scheyer revealed the junior guard underwent surgery Sunday morning.
Duke earned a bye into the quarterfinals and will open play Thursday in the Atlantic Coast Conference at Charlotte, N.C. Foster will not play.
But Scheyer would not count him out for the NCAA Tournament for the Blue Devils (29-2).
“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 its all said and done. But he is gonna be out for a foreseeable time here coming up.”
Scheyer said Duke would need to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament for Foster to have a chance to play.
“I think the reality of it is we’d have to advance to a Final Four,” said Scheyer, who was named ACC Coach of the Year on Monday. “And is there a chance earlier? I’m not going to eliminate that right now, but I think that’s really difficult to try to even imagine that scenario. But we’re not going to have him the next couple of weeks, next few weeks here. … Let’s keep winning and let’s give him the opportunity to join us.”
Duke will have a limited rotation in the ACC tournament as center Patrick Ngongba II is out with his own injury to his right foot. Cayden Boozer is likely to move into the starting lineup at point guard.
Foster appeared in all 31 games in the regular season, averaging 8.5 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 25.4 minutes per game. He is shooting 44.2% from the field and 40.2% from 3-point range.
