Injury Update on Illinois' David Mirkovic – Plus the Latest on Ivisic Twins

On Tuesday night, Illinois basketball coaches and players were present for the annual Kiwanis Club event in Champaign. Head coach Brad Underwood spoke to the assembled media, and he offered updates on all members of the Illini's key frontcourt trio – each of whom is dealing with or has dealt with some preseason conflict.

Brad Underwood says David Mirkovic is out of his walking boot

Illinois forward David Mirkovic, an All-American candidate who suffered a fractured left foot that required surgery in early August, holds the key to the season for the Illini. If he's healthy, the sky is the limit. If not? Even matching last season's Final Four run might be out of reach. The good news: his recovery is in progress.

“Mirk is out of the boot … Mirk is going to be Mirk,” Underwood said. “He’s going to do everything possible to make himself right as quickly as he can. We’ll progress slowly with that, but it’s nice to see him out of the boot, start strengthening, all of that.

“No timeline with Mirk,” Underwood said in response to a follow-up question about Mirkovic’s timetable. “Safer than sorry is kind of the way we’re looking at this. We want to make sure that he’s completely healthy, that we’re not hurting him for the long run.”

Early reports following Mirkovic’s surgery were optimistic, estimating his return at just 6-8 weeks. Even if that timeline gets pushed back – and that's entirely possible considering Illinois’ obvious caution – it’s safe to say Mirkovic should be available by the season opener in early November (though he may miss or be limited in exhibition action).

Tomislav Ivisic is back in Champaign

Meanwhile, Illini center Tomislav Ivisic is finally back in Champaign after his return to the United States from his native Croatia was initially delayed by a visa issue.

"Tomi is back,” Underwood said. “Just one of those visa things that took longer than we had hoped. But the good thing is, he’s back and he was in workouts today. He’s got to catch up a little bit, with conditioning especially. But he’ll do that fairly quickly.”

The issue, according to Underwood, was that student visas are usually four years but Ivisic’s wasn’t, so he was forced to set another appointment and go through the full renewal process. But Underwood said the holdup was “no big deal" and didn’t seem concerned in the slightest.

Zvonimir Ivisic hurt his hand in Croatia – and is sidelined for now

The news delivered by Underwood about Tomislav's brother Zvonimir Ivisic wasn't as positive:

"Z hurt his hand while he was home in Croatia,” Underwood said. “We’ll reexamine that later in the week. He’s not working out right now, so we’ll see what the extent of that is.”

With almost two months until tipoff (and given Underwood's lack of alarm), it seems unlikely that Zvonimir’s hand injury should affect anything heading into 2026-27. Although he’ll miss out on quality practice time, Big Z should be able to avoid a conditioning dropoff and in any case has the experience to catch up with ease.

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