‘Time is kind of running out on him’: Mike Woodson says Xavier Johnson returned to the floor in ‘non-contact’ capacity

Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson is still uncertain of when — and if — starting point guard Xavier Johnson will return to game action this season.

Johnson has missed the past six games with an elbow injury he suffered against Iowa on January 30. Johnson exited in the second half after taking a hard fall on his elbow. He had been wearing a bulky brace on his elbow since the injury up until Saturday’s game against Penn State.

On Monday, Woodson addressed the potential return of his senior point guard.

“He did some things yesterday (Sunday) on the floor. Not a lot of contact,” Woodson said. “All I’m doing is I’ll go down today and talk to Tim (Garl) just see where he is. I know he wants to play in the worst way. Time is kind of running out on him. I feel for him in that regard.

“But I’m just going to follow his lead. I don’t like playing players when they don’t practice and not have some kind of contact. So I don’t know. I’ll know more today and see where he is in terms of him wanting to play. I know they told him it would be four to six, seven weeks at the time of the injury, but and we’re at I think about four weeks now.”

The sixth-year point guard, has had a very disappointing season — both from a health and production standpoint. He is averaging just 8.3 points and 2.1 assists — both career lows — in 14 games. Johnson missed seven games earlier this season with a foot injury.

Since he returned from his foot injury on January 3, he has averaged just 6.6 points on 34.8 percent shooting. He also has 17 turnovers to just 16 assists in those eight games.

“We’ll see today and see how he felt after running around a little bit yesterday without the contact and go from there,” Woodson added. “That’s all we can do.

Johnson has played in just 25 games in the past two seasons combined.

“We’re hoping in the next week or two he’ll be back. We hope,” Woodson said last week. “And if that’s so, that will give us an opportunity to have him for the last three or four (regular season) games and have him as we get ready for the Big Ten tournament.”

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