Duke basketball provides potential clues on return of injured star

There are potential clues on when injured Duke basketball star Jalen Johnson could return.

A major setback hit the Duke basketball program on December 15 when the team announced freshman star Jalen Johnson would be out ‘indefinitely’ with a foot injury.

Johnson has only missed one game, a victory over Notre Dame, thanks to one cancellation against Gardner-Webb and postponement against Pittsburgh due to COVID-19 related issues within those two programs.

During the broadcast against Notre Dame, ESPN play-by-play commentator Bob Wischusen reported that Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski told him that Johnson is in a walking boot and would have another MRI in the coming weeks to provide a potential timeline on his return to the court.

Perhaps the Blue Devils received great news from that MRI as the Duke Men’s Basketball Twitter account provided the first unofficial update on the status of Johnson with a video on Tuesday morning captioned ‘Stayin Ready’.

https://twitter.com/DukeMBB/status/1343894924299788288?s=20

Johnson is seen in the final seconds of the video celebrating with senior guard Jordan Goldwire, hinting that the five-star forward is back on the court taking part in basketball activities.

Since its matchup against Pittsburgh on Tuesday night was postponed, the Blue Devils held an intrasquad scrimmage on Tuesday afternoon in place of their game, and the Duke Men’s Basketball Instagram account decided to engage fans while the team played with a Q&A on its Instagram story.

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One question asked to the account was if Jalen Johnson was there, and the account posted a picture of Johnson’s non-basketball sneaker at his locker, hinting at the concept that he was on the court taking part in practice.

Two stories later, the account showed a photo of associate head coach Nate James drawing up a play during a timeout with Jalen Johnson, walking boot-less, standing right next to him.

https://twitter.com/Ball_Durham/status/1343992280336785409?s=20

The 6-foot-9 forward was in a mask, showing that he was not in the scrimmage at that point or was not taking part in the scrimmage whatsoever. Rather, he could have been doing individual drills prior to the game.

Potential timeline for the Duke basketball star to return

In other highlights the team posted during the scrimmage, Johnson was not shown taking part in the game, which could mean that he will not play in Duke’s next scheduled game against Florida State (Saturday, January 2).

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Following its meeting with the Seminoles, the Blue Devils will return home for two games to face Boston College on Wednesday, January 6, and Wake Forest on Saturday, January 9, potentially allowing Johnson to return to the lineup in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Regardless of when Jalen Johnson takes the floor again for Duke, it seems like a when and not if situation and it will be sooner rather than later that the No. 20 Blue Devils are at full strength for the remainder of ACC play.