In West Virginia’s 96-78 win over Buffalo on Sunday, fifth-year forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. did not play as he is dealing with a left knee injury he sustained last Saturday against UAB.
In the opening minute of West Virginia’s game, Matthews jumped for a ball and came down awkwardly on his left knee. Before the game Sunday, WVU announced Matthews would not be playing with the knee injury and that he is considered day-to-day.
“We were hoping the day after it was something that would go away and after two days we knew it wasn’t going to,” West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said.
Matthews spent three seasons at West Virginia before transferring to Washington. He then came back to West Virginia this season to use his final year of eligibility.
Huggins said the good news for Matthews is the injury will not require any sort of procedure, but Huggins did caution saying Matthews could potentially miss some time.
“The good thing is it’s not something that is going to have to be repaired,” Huggins said. “It’s just going to take time to get back to normal.”
West Virginia guard Erik Stevenson who grew up with Matthews said he knew all week Matthews was not playing and that he expects Matthews to be back for West Virginia’s game on Thursday against Stony Brook.
“I think he’ll back from a personal experience of him for Stony Brook and keep going from there,” Stevenson said. “He was in the training room a lot… just trying to strengthen himself back up.”
Matthews is averaging 10.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per game this season for WVU. West Virginia’s next game is on Dec. 22 against Stony Brook.
