Duke basketball: Dariq Whitehead injury news better than feared

Jon Scheyer updated the status of Duke basketball freshman Dariq Whitehead.

After watching Dariq Whitehead's awkward landing early in the second half of Duke basketball's 78-75 loss at Virginia Tech on Monday night, many folks on social media feared the worst: that the heralded first-year Blue Devil might not return for the rest of the season.

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But during the program's press conference on Thursday afternoon, head coach Jon Scheyer made it sound like Whitehead's left lower-leg injury isn't as severe as it looked to be in Blacksburg.

"Dariq is not going to play Saturday [at Georgia Tech]," Scheyer said. "He's just not ready to go. We need to get him fully healthy, and we'll take it from there. But we've gotten positive news. It's just he's not ready for Saturday."

Scheyer noted he has no label for the injury other than a "strain" and confirmed that this is not a season-ending injury for the 6-foot-7, 220-pound small forward.

"He hasn't been able to practice yet," Scheyer added. "But we want to take it slow, be cautious...I don't want to speculate on time because we don't know...It was scary just because it's a different kind of injury. For him, though, I think he got a lot of relief once we've done the testing and got the MRI. And there's no structural damage, which is important."

Dariq Whitehead missed the first three games on the Duke basketball schedule while recovering from a fracture in his right foot, which he suffered during a team workout in late August. And the former five-star out of Montverde Academy (Fla.) sat out the loss at Wake Forest on Dec. 20 while dealing with a non-COVID illness.

Although Whitehead needed several games in November and December to build his confidence, he's been increasingly productive recently. He's drawn a start in six of the Duke basketball squad's past eight games; in that span, he's averaged 11.1 points while shooting 38.9 percent beyond the arc (14-for-36).

The unranked Blue Devils (14-6, 5-4 ACC) hope to improve to 2-4 in road games when they play at unranked Georgia Tech (8-12, 1-9 ACC) at 3 p.m. ET Saturday (ACCN).

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Despite the positive news, it sure sounds like Dariq Whitehead wishes he could play.

"He's bummed, no question," Scheyer said. "He wants to be out there playing."

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