Duke basketball will have star freshman Dariq Whitehead against Virginia
After missing Duke’s past four games with an injury to his left leg, freshman Dariq Whitehead will be in uniform when the Blue Devils play at No. 8 Virginia on Saturday.
Duke announced Saturday that Whitehead would be available to play against the Cavaliers.
Thursday, during a news conference at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Scheyer said the 6-7 Whitehead participated in Wednesday’s non-contact practice and that he needed to go through full contact practices before he could be cleared to play.
Scheyer said Whitehead was “progressing really well” toward returning to game action.
“He’s right there,” Scheyer said. “I don’t want to say whether it’s going to happen or not. We want him to feel comfortable and we need to huddle up with with him and our staff and our medical team today and tomorrow to get a better feel.”
Projected to be a first-round pick in the June NBA Draft, Whitehead strained his lower left leg on Jan. 23 during Duke’s 78-75 loss at Virginia Tech. While leaping in an attempt to secure a loose ball from Virginia Tech’s Justyn Mutts, Whitehead landed awkwardly on his left leg. He immediately fell to the floor, wincing and holding his left leg above the ankle.
With the ball still in play, Whitehead initially stood back up but limped around on defense. After the Hokies scored, the officials stopped play and Whitehead limped to the bench. Duke athletic trainer Jose Fonseca attended to Whitehead before teammates Christian Reeves and Kale Catchings assisted Whitehead to the locker room as he was unable to bear weight on his left leg.
Once back in Durham the following day, subsequent examinations, including an MRI, revealed no structural damage to his muscles or tendons. While continuing to receive treatment, Whitehead did not practice with the Blue Devils the rest of the week.
“We’re just fortunate that it wasn’t worse,” Scheyer said three days after the injury occurred. “It was scary at the time when he went down. We want to make sure with him that we give him the right practice time to get back on the court. We don’t want to just throw them out there where he hasn’t had a chance to get reps in practice.“
Whitehead traveled with the team to Atlanta and was on the court during early warmups prior to Duke’s 86-43 win over Georgia Tech on Jan. 31. Whitehead did not play and Scheyer said after the game Whitehead had not done any more in practice than he did during his light participation in warmups.
Since then, Whitehead progressed to taking part in more pregame warmup activities prior to Duke’s games against Wake Forest on Jan. 31, North Carolina on Feb. 4 and Miami on Feb. 6.
Following Duke’s win over UNC, Scheyer said Whitehead experienced some stiffness during his rehabilitation last week.
But he was able to be more active in practice this week. If there are no residual issues from that work, he could be cleared on Saturday to play for the Blue Devils against Virginia.
Playing in 16 games this season, Whitehead has averaged 8.4 points and 2.3 rebounds. Against ACC foes, he’s scored 10 points per game while shooting 41.2% from the field.
This story was originally published February 10, 2023 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Duke basketball will have star freshman Dariq Whitehead against Virginia."