A large (and growing) % of elite soccer players don't play high school at all. Year-round club or academy soccer. This isn't specific to Ohio as it is largely US Soccer structural decisions driving this (although OHSAA certainly isn't helping matters)

According to Saul, if his X-ray tomorrow shows sufficient healing of the fracture, he could play as early as Friday in the Coppin State game. That, of course, would be great news.

January 2, 2018 should be his return date. That is the MAC opener with Central Michigan. We aren't getting an at-large bid this year and the group we have plus Mickle back will get us at least a .500 record (losses to Maryland and Western Kentucky are pretty much locks with Marshall a possibility). We are 3-3 now so wins against Prairie View, Northwestern Technical Academy or whatever and Coppin State would make us 6-6 in the non-league (maybe 7-5 with a win over Marshall). I'm good with that to get that stress fracture even less stressed!

Now, BVP and Gareri are the two I'm curious about. Have to imagine one will redshirt right? We won't have minutes available for the 7 we have now, plus Mickle and Carter.

Pregame radio interview on WXTQ. Again, the "if" here is what the doctors say after viewing the X-ray. Depends on how well it has healed. But, by the tone of his voice he seemed optimistic.

I don't see how you take a boot off after 5-6 weeks and are suddenly able to play d1 basketball with no rehab. even if the bone is completely healed.

At Ball State while Ethel Gregory and Majerus were here we implemented wet vests in the pool and running workouts in the deep end based on Joan Benoit's experience , shooting workouts in 4 foot of water based on David Rivers post accident recovery at Notre Dame and a variety of other methods to get stress fractures back as early as 3 weeks. Amazing time with the Biomechanics Lab, Athletic Training Professiorial Staff and community physicians pushing the envelope to keep athletes healthy. Drawing on each other's individual skills and knowledge we got a lot accomplished and in a lot shorter time than most thought possible. Keeping them working all other parts/systems of the body while protecting the fracture site is the key.

A lot of return to play depends on what you are able to keep kids doing cardiovascularly, the severity of the stress reaction/fracture, the biomechanics involved. Stress fractures heal, not much rehab involved. I never was a fan of letting athletes sit....does not help them mentally and sure leaves them at a physical and conditioning deficit. We always used the general tenet that for every day lost of activity we lost 3 days of base conditioning.

There were lots of doubters but we were getting them back on the court pretty efficiently at the U with great long term results. Not sure what OHIO has in place to facilitate return to play.

Players play. Bring him back as the doctors & trainers see fit. Nurse him along a bit the first few games, but don't make him sit around and wait for MAC play.

If there are no setbacks in the next week, Arkley tweets that he expects Jason to play against MD Thursday (Big Ten Network, 7 p.m.).

Frayer also mentioned at the Coppin press conference that all the injured were practicing, although with limits, and there were no more boots, crutches etc.

I would say overuse accounts for a lot of these injuries. Too many kids play only one sport now and stress the same bones ligaments and muscles all the time. Multi sport athletes develop more rounded body structures.

I read on the game summary that Jason Carter is "reinjured".

Does that mean the previous injury came back,or did he injure something else ?

Seems odd that they didn't pick up on it until now.

Of course, it still could be a guess on some doctor's part. Hoping Jason fully heals and has a nice career with Ohio. If that means sitting out the rest of this season, by all means do it.