Malik Williams Optimistic for Full Recovery Ahead of Next Season

(Photo of Mamadi Diakite, Malik Williams: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Ever since Feb. 24, 2020, Louisville men's basketball forward/center Malik Williams has has played in just four games because of injuries. He rolled his left ankle at Florida State on the aforementioned date, he developed yet another fracture in the fifth metatarsal of his right foot just before the start of the 2020-21 season, then he re-injured that same foot on Feb. 27 at Duke.

Most of the last thirteen months for the Fort Wayne, Ind. native has been spent rehabbing those injuries, patiently waiting for his return to the court. Among other reasons, it played a large factor in him deciding that he will be returning for a fifth season with the Cardinals.

"I didn't have that full feel for the game" Williams said Tuesday. "It had been a while since I actually played - almost a year. I just didn't have that full feel for the game, and that's just not how I want to leave my college experience."

During his junior campaign, Williams averaged 8.5 points and 6.1 rebounds, and finished as a the runner-up in the 2019-20 ACC Sixth Man of the Year voting. In the three games he played this season, he averaged five points and six rebounds.

Fortunately, recovery from his most recent injury is going along better than the original prognosis suggested. Williams himself said that his right foot was only sore for about a week after he re-injured it at Duke, and that the doctors and head trainer Fred Hina suggested he shut it down as a precaution.

As for his left ankle, the one he originally injured over a year ago, it is still in the process of healing. In fact, when he made his season debut at North Carolina on Feb. 20, that ankle was still bothering him even though the injury to his right foot that had kept him out for over three months was back to 100%.

"I think that it's really just been building up over time," he said. "I did come down on it funny in the Duke game, so it was hurting and it probably looked like that. But that was something that built up over time, that was kind of bothering me all the way throughout the process."

The left ankle injury had actually built up to the point where after the season had ended, he underwent minor arthroscopic surgery. He had a sculpt done, some shaving, and is once again confined to a walking boot. However, he only faces a six week recovery, and isn't concerned that he will miss any time next season with the current.

"I'm not looking at being worried about next year at all. I'll actually be good for the summer," he said. "Right now, I'm just working on recovering that ankle, while at the same time stretching that bone in the other foot."

Of course, there is always the threat of re-injury. But oddly enough, doctors told Williams that while there was a high injury recurrence rate after the first injury and surgery to his right foot prior to the 2019-20 season, the chances of re-injury plummet after a second surgery because of a more thorough job with the bone graft and a larger screw.

As far as the left ankle goes, that was more along the lines of not properly addressing it once it happened, and not realizing the severity of the injury. Williams chalks that up to 'freak accidents', and the doctors also told him they don't think he will be injury prone.

"I believe that I'll be good from here on out," he said.

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