SOUTH BEND, Ind. – [autotag]Kebba Njie[/autotag] followed [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] to Notre Dame, but he won’t officially start the new journey alongside him. The Penn State transfer forward injured his right hand in practice this past weekend and will not be available for the Irish’s season opener against Niagara.
Njie was expected to start against the Purple Eagles, but [autotag]Matt Zona[/autotag], one of the few incumbents on the Irish’s roster, will do so instead. Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune was the first to report the news:
It's not an @ndmbb game until we have injury news. And we have injury news.
Irish sophomore forward Kebba Njie will miss tonight's game with a right hand injury suffered in practice over the weekend.
Njie is considered day-to-day (game-to-game). Expect Matt Zona to start.
— Tom Noie (@tnoieNDI) November 6, 2023
This is a tough break for the Irish as Njie is one of their more highly touted transfers. Ironically, Njie and Zona both accompanied Shrewsberry at the ACC Tipoff media session. Now, one of those players will have to step up for the other.
Zona’s only career start coming into Monday’s game was a January 2021 road win over Miami during his freshman year. He had two rebounds in the first four minutes. Interestingly, [autotag]Tony Sanders Jr.[/autotag], another Irish returnee, also started that game.
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