Good Morning, Illini Nation: Uncertainty surrounds injured Illinois players

Oct. 28—Illinois will play without David Mirkovic, Andrej Stojakovic and Zvonimir Ivisic in its exhibition finale tonight against UIC. Lincoln Williams may join that group after a slip and fall in Tuesday morning’s practice at Ubben Basketball Complex.

When Mirkovic (foot), Stojakovic (head), Ivisic (head) and Williams (undisclosed) return, is a question Illini coach Brad Underwood couldn’t answer. Or at least it was a question he wasn’t going to answer during his post-practice media availability.

“I have no idea,” Underwood said. “When it goes to medical stuff, you guys know me by now, you can’t answer those questions. Everything becomes reactive to a buildup and a workout. I don’t know if they’re two months. I don’t know if they’re two days. I don’t worry one second about it. I’ve got to coach the guys that we have, and that’s kind of the approach we’ve taken. They come back when they come back.”

Mirkovic’s situation, obviously, is unique. The preseason All-American broke a bone in his left foot during Illinois’ final summer workout at the end of July and had corrective surgery Aug. 1 in Indianapolis. After a recovery process that had him back on court for limited contact drills in practice this month, the 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward was back in a protective boot when the Illini played Baylor on Friday at State Farm Center.

Underwood said then, and repeated Tuesday, nothing had changed for Mirkovic. That the screw inserted into his left foot to fix the break was doing what it was supposed to and there was no setback.

“It’s healing and what the human body does, and there’s no control over that,” Underwood said. “Nothing has changed at all. … Long term for 3-4 years, 5 years, 10 years, however long that young man may play, we don’t want that to be a reflection of anything that goes wrong because we tried to rush it. Championships aren’t won in October. We’re erring on the side of judgment there.”