Josh Eilert gives update as Jesse Edwards dresses and his return looms

West Virginia forward Jesse Edwards appeared to be close to returning on Saturday.

In WVU’s game against No. 3 Kansas, Edwards was dressed and warmed up with the team, but he did not see any game action.

According to interim head coach Josh Eilert, it would have been somewhat premature to bring Edwards back, but that Edwards said he was ready to go if need be.

I think he’s a lot closer than where I thought he was going to be. I didn’t know how the appointment was going to go and how the pictures or whatever it may be, I didn’t know how it was going to come out,” Eilert said. “He got a good report, but he was in a brace until then, so he hadn’t had any movement.”

Eilert said Edwards participated in practice on Friday, but when they went into a full team session, they backed off as the wrist was bugging him.

“We threw him out in practice yesterday and he was raring to go, raring to try it out and wants to do everything he can to help the team. We went a little bit 5-on-5 and it was a little bit tender when he started guarding guys. We backed off real quick to make sure we don’t set him backwards. We want to make sure we have him moving forward and we don’t want to have a setback,” Eilert said.

Eilert added there was a slim chance Edwards played yesterday. He said him and Edwards had conversations about potential scenarios of time on the clock and foul trouble WVU might be in.

“He’s like, ‘Coach I’ll do whatever it takes to win. I don’t know how I can be very effective with it’. He’s a team guy, he’ll do anything for the team to a fault,” Eilert said. “At the end of the day, I have to do what’s right by Jesse and make sure we don’t set him back in terms of his career and his long term. It’s a bigger picture thing with him.”

WVU’s next two games are both on the road, with the Mountaineers traveling to face UCF on Tuesday and then Oklahoma State on Saturday.