Cassius Stanley on His Eye Injury

Duke freshman forward Cassius Stanley was getting ready to play Notre Dame on Saturday when a fluke injury sent him to the locker room with an eye injury. He met with the media on Tuesday and said he would be good to go for Wednesday’s game against NC State.

“I’m going to the doctor in about a half hour,” he said. “I feel good. I can see clearly. So I’ll be ready to play.”

Stanley explained what happened that knocked him out of the game against the Irish.

“I was in warmups, and a ball flew my way,” he said. “A manager tried to grab it. It just so happened right where he was grabbing it, I was getting ready to shoot, and his knuckle went into my eye. After that, I kind of just went back to the training room because it was too hard to focus and a little hard to see, because it was so loud and such a hostile environment already in Cameron.”

Stanley returned to the bench area before halftime, but he was in no condition to play.

“I mean, the medical staff was great,” he said. “Everyone was great, helping me. I mean if I had to play … if we needed to play in the last 10 minutes, eight minutes (of the game), probably, because my eye was starting to loosen up. But more than half the game, I couldn’t see so probably no.”

Still, being on the sideline was better than being back in the locker room area getting treatment.

“It was definitely hard to watch from the training room,” he said. “I kept asking what time is it? What time is it? I was ready to play, but it wasn’t going to be too good for me to play. So I just came out to support my teammates. We did a great job out there.”