Minnesota Basketball: Eric Curry Out 4-6 Weeks After Knee Surgery

The blows just keep coming for Minnesota Golden Gophers redshirt sophomore Eric Curry. Curry missed all of last season due to recovering from surgery to repair multiple torn ligaments and his miniscus in his left knee. He injured that knee in a preseason workout in August of 2017. Unfortunately, it appears Curry has somehow reinjured that knee.

The University of Minnesota announced on Monday that Curry had successful surgery on his left knee and is expected to miss four to six weeks. That puts him back in action right around mid-December.

The exact injury to his knee has not been made public, but it is concerning. Curry was cleared and had been taking part in preseason workouts and the first few practices of the season. Curry was fully cleared on Oct. 20 and played 22 minutes in the Gophers “secret scrimmage” against Creighton the same day. However he did not participate in Sunday’s open scrimmage. Gopher head coach Richard Pitino said Sunday that Curry was being held out for precautionary reasons as he was dealing with some swelling in his knee. We now know there was much more behind that story.

In a best case scenario, it appears Curry will miss 8-10 of the Gophers games to start the season. Unfortunately those include their toughest non-conference competition including games against fellow Power 6 foes in Utah, Texas A&M, Washington, Boston College, and Oklahoma State. Additionally Curry will most likely miss the Gophers’ two December Big Ten games at Ohio State and home against the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Minnesota will miss Curry’s ability to play both the 4 or the 5 positions on the floor. Possibly the only saving grace may be the unexpected benefit of senior center Matz Stockman who surprised and looked amazing in the Gophers scrimmage on Sunday. He will now be needed to play a major role in the frontcourt along with true freshman Daniel Oturu in the early part of the Gophers season.

The Gophers play Minnesota-Duluth in their exhibition game Thursday night at the Barn before kicking off the regular season against Omaha Tuesday November 6th.