Childs to have surgery on reinjured right hand

[BUBraves 33]

This is obviously going to be a major blow. No timeline was set. This is according to the Bradley basketball twitter account.

[BUBraves 33]

[Da Coach]

I am hearing that they are proceeding with inserting a pin into the fractured finger, which was an option considered initially. But now with the reinjury, it is necessary, and will guarantee proper healing. This will probably keep Elijah out another 3-6 weeks.

[BUBraves 33]

We need the guys to play like they did in the Drake game and keep us afloat. Man what a bad mood this has me in now. Hope Eli has a speedy recovery.

[Dub]

God Bless America.

[egib52]

I really don't understand why he played Saturday. I understand the Dr. cleared him, but what does it hurt giving him at least another week or so.

[Da Coach]

I cannot speak for the team doctors, and I do not know any specific info about Eli's case. But many fractures of the finger like I suspect Eli had are susceptible to re-break even after much longer periods of time because of the extreme forces that athletes can put on their bones. It sometimes does not require an incision. Let's hope it can be done in a common and simple way by a simple puncture to insert a wire-like pin which stabilizes the fracture in a fixed position so the healing can be assured.
Example: http://www.ijoonline.com/viewimage.a..._156204_u6.jpg
He will miss a little bit more time, but hopefully could be back for the last month or more of the season and the postseason.

[Tommy]

Well poop.

We can win without Eli and we’ll have to go back to the mode of thinking like we were before, that being it’ll give some other guys valuable experience that will help us once we get Eli back heading into Arch Madness.

This makes the need for getting DB back to the DB we know he can be that much more important.

[houstonbrave]

Wow-Going through the heart of the valley season without Eli and with only 8 scholarship players is going to be a real stretch. Not like I know a darn thing but if the expected recovery time is the same as he had without surgery gotta wonder why they didn’t go that way initially.

[BUSongwriter]

Do you suspect the re-injury happened when he took that nasty fall?

[houstonbrave]

Just to clarify. It is my understanding Eli would not qualify for a redshirt. Rules say he could not play over 30 percent of games. We have 31 reg season games so 30 percent is 10 games. He played 11 games with the injury occurring in the 11 th game and then played in the UNI game. So as I understand it a medical redshirt is not an option. Don’t get me wrong I don’t want to redshirt him but just wanted to clarify it is not an option.

[bigjimmy]

Unfortunately not doing the surgery first bit us in the ass but obviously hindsight is 20/20. Think our chances to win the regular season championship have went poof but this will make us a better team come tournament time. Eli won’t have a lot of wear and tear on his body and guys like Ville, Thomas and Boya will all get valuable extra playing time. Still think we can go to Evansville and beat them as long as we make our FT’S and keep playing as hard as we have been. Next man up is right Coach Wardle. GET ER DONE!

[Da Coach]

Yes, Eli does not qualify for a medical red-shirt. And he thinks it happened when he had that fall in Saturday's game, but sometimes these kind of movement of hand or finger fractures can happen even without any specific trauma, just from the forces put on the bone. So nobody can be sure.
He is scheduled to have surgery Wednesday morning (1/7). Recovery time is 4-6 weeks, and of course, he will not travel with the team to Evansville.

[Bradley3342]

Huge blow to the team. Hopefully with surgery his finger heals just fine because we definitely need him at the end of the season and heading into the Valley tournament. Being out 4-6 weeks a lot of guys are going to have to step up or what started out to be such a promising season could really become a disappointing one.

[Mikovio]

4-6 weeks from surgery would place his return between February 5-19, or for the final 4-8 regular season games. So he should be back for important home games vs MSU and Loyola and @ISU.

I'm more confident now than I was after he first injured his hand because the guys looked really good vs Toledo and Drake. Still gotta prove they can take it on the road though. I'm just hoping we don't fall into Thursday contention because with him back we'll be one of the most dangerous teams in STL.