John Calipari refutes report that CJ Fredrick suffered broken leg

CJ Fredrick (UK Athletics Photo)

So does Iowa transfer CJ Fredrick have a broken leg or not? Kentucky Sports Radio’s Ryan Lemond reported Monday morning that Fredrick had surgery on his broken leg and word quickly spread to UK fans across the state.

However, a few hours later Kentucky coach John Calipari took to social media with a different explanation for Monday’s surgery:

“@CJ_fredrick had a minor procedure today that needed to be done at some point before the season. He and his family decided to be proactive and have it done now rather than wait. We are all happy it went well and he will be back better than ever and ready to go for the season!” Calipari posted on Twitter about four hours after Lemond’s report.

That prompted Lemond to take to Twitter to respond to Calipari’s update on Fredrick. Lemond said his information was a “little strong” but indicated that Calipari’s statement was a “little soft” about the significance of the injury.

“It’s probably somewhere in the middle. But he did have surgery this morning, even if it was a stress fracture. Just hope he’s back soon,” Lemond posted on Twitter.

Kyle Tucker of The Athletic noted Fredrick had a “minor procedure to clean up” an old injury that would go along with Calipari’s statement. He indicated the surgery had been planned for several weeks and was done this week because UK basketball players head home for about three weeks at the end of the week. Tucker said Fredrick was “expected” to be available for practice/workouts within a month.

Fredrick has talked about a plantar fasciitis injury before and said it had been bothering him for some time.

Kentucky does not open the season until Nov. 9 against Duke. But remember last season when Calipari said Keion Brooks would be out a few weeks with a minor leg injury before the season started and he did not play until January. Calipari’s injury updates have not always been the most reliable but at least it seems clear that Fredrick did not suffer a broken leg even though the stress fracture theory Lemond later added would not be good news, either.