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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — You could hear it — or rather hear absolutely nothing — at Crisler Center in the moments after Isaiah Livers came up limping after a play late vs. Indiana, and subsequently headed to the locker room.
While the major concerns were that he, again, reaggravated the groin injury that kept him out for more than a month, Livers returned to the bench shortly after, pointing to his calf muscle and ankle to his curious teammates.
However, shortly after, after a timeout, he returned to the court, seemingly unabated by the sustained injury.
So what happened? And what’s his prognosis going forward?
Michigan head coach Juwan Howard was tight-lipped, but also didn’t have a lot of information to share. As far as he sees it, Livers is, once again, day-to-day, despite having returned for several minutes in Sunday’s contest.
“Well, it was a loose ball, and he went to pick it up and one of the Indiana players dove for it, sort of took his legs out underneath him,” Howard said. “So he came up limping. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. We’re gonna treat it. I’m assuming — not assuming, but after talking to our medical staff, it’s gonna be a day-to day process.”
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Howard says there was no communication between the two of them before Livers went back in.
Once he rejoined his teammates, it signified enough to the Wolverines head coach that Livers was at least good to go for the rest of the game.
“There was no discussion from the two of us,” Howard said. “I just looked over and I saw he came back after getting his ankle taped, getting that readjusted. I looked over at him, say, ‘Ready?’ ‘Let’s go, Coach!’”
Given his return, how much more substantial it was compared to the Illinois game last month which forced Livers out for several more games, and considering it’s not seemingly the same injury, it’s probably safe to say that we won’t see much of, if any, absence moving forward.
But for now, we just have to take Howard at his word regarding Livers and consider him day-to-day.
Michigan’s next game comes on Wednesday evening at Rutgers.