After falling awkwardly last night while playing defense in the first half of the IU men's basketball team's 100-69 win against Central Connecticut State, sophomore forward Austin Etherington had to be carted off on a stretcher with what was diagnosed as a left knee injury.
Sunday morning, IU Athletics announced that Etherington underwent season-ending knee surgery for a fractured left patella in Indianapolis, performed by Dr. Steve Ahlfeld.
IU Coach Tom Crean said in the press release that the whole program was saddened to hear the news, but they were also relieved to hear that it wasn't worse.
"Anytime you lose a valued member of your program it not only hurts the team, but also everyone's hearts," Crean said. "Austin has been doing an excellent job improving, and now we have to help him overcome this setback and move forward. Our players have experience in this area, and everyone is looking forward to helping him recover. As serious as his injury was, we are thankful that it was not worse. We have such an outstanding medical team I could not imagine going through something like this without them. We are fortunate to have them"
