Gophers women’s basketball leading scorer Mara Braun has broken the same bone in her right foot that required surgery last season and is sidelined indefinitely.
“The chances of that [injury] are incredibly slim, but unfortunately it happened,” Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit said Friday.
Plitzuweit said Braun, a junior from Wayzata, is meeting with top foot specialists and “assessing the best plan moving forward.”
“It’s too premature to know what that looks like,” said Plitzuweit, whose team is 6-0. “We don’t know when she will be back, whether this year or beyond. The most important thing is her long-term health and getting her back to play at the highest level that she was playing at. She has a long basketball career ahead of her.”
Braun sat on the team bench wearing a walking boot on her right foot during Wednesday’s home 81-52 nonconference victory over Eastern Illinois. She broke that same foot in that morning’s shootaround, planting and making what Plitzuweit called a basketball move.
“She’s someone who has approached this with an incredible attitude and demeanor and you saw that if you were at our game Wednesday,” Plitzuweit said.
“We’ve been through this before,” Plitzuweit said. “Different players will have to step up. You don’t replace Mara with one player because of all the things she brings to the game.
