Dawson Garcia Injury Update: Latest news on Gophers basketball standout's medical situation 

Minnesota Golden Gophers' Dawson Garcia did not have the summer workout experience he planned, as he sustained an injury to his left foot during training. The 6-foot-11 forward underwent surgery, which is expected to sideline him until September, according to reports on Wednesday.

Jeff Wald from FOX9 in the Twin Cities reported that Garcia hurt his left foot and will be out for four to five weeks. The injury is not considered to be major as of now and should not be an issue for the upcoming season as he is already in the recovery phase following the surgery.

However, in the worst-case scenario, if the recovery takes longer than expected and Dawson Garcia is not back within five weeks, he might not be ready to play at the start of the 2024-25 season, which begins in November (via FOX9):

"Very tough decision, you get things thrown at you all the time that are very tempting, but at the end of the day you’ve got to stay true to your roots," Garcia said about returning for a final year.

"I've got All-American aspirations, Big Ten player of the year aspirations. "I'm not coming back to just play around. I'm excited about pushing the ball up the floor and becoming more of a playmaker," he added.

Garcia had his best season in 2023-24, setting a career-high in points (17.6) and rebounds (6.7) per game. He also scored 20 points or more in 11 games and had three games where he scored 30 points.

Dawson Garcia's injury history

The Gophers' top scorer has experienced multiple injuries throughout his career. In the 2022-23 season, he was sidelined for multiple games due to a bone bruise in his right foot. He finished the season playing 26 games, averaging 15.3 ppg, 6.7 rpg and 2.2 apg.

Similarly, the previous season, he missed a few games while recovering from an ankle injury. However, Garcia was able to bounce back and had an excellent year, ending with All-Big Ten honors, which was the best season of his college career so far.

Dawson Garcia also missed half of the 2021-22 season because of a family emergency. In January 2022, he took time off from the team to handle some health problems in his family. By Feb. 10, 2022, it was announced that he would not return for the rest of the season.