Southeast Missouri State basketball player Porter will miss at least six weeks with broken foot

Michael Porter's injury-plagued college basketball career has hit another roadblock.

Southeast Missouri State coach Dickey Nutt said the junior forward will miss anywhere from six to eight weeks with a broken foot suffered during Thursday's practice.

"We feel bad for him, but he's a quick healer," Nutt said following Friday's intrasquad scrimmage at the Show Me Center. "He's certainly had a lot of bad luck. It's a shame."

Porter already was hobbled during preseason practice after he suffered a torn labrum in his hip for the second time.

Nutt feared that Porter wouldn't be at full strength the entire season due to the hip injury. Porter said recently that he was going to try to fight through the pain and give the Redhawks as many minutes as possible.

Porter began his college career at Missouri State. He missed all but six games of his freshman season in 2009-10 due to an emergency appendectomy and a torn hamstring.

The former Sikeston High School standout was involved in a single-vehicle accident in June of 2010 that resulted in hip surgery and put his basketball career in jeopardy.

Porter decided to transfer to Southeast. It took time to recover from the hip surgery, but he eventually was able to practice with the Redhawks during the 2010-11 season although he was ineligible for games due to NCAA transfer rules.

Porter then missed quite a bit of preseason practice last year with hip problems, which set his conditioning back. He finally rounded into form and came on strong toward the end of the season, finishing with averages of 4.4 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.

Porter was hopeful of an injury-free junior campaign, but then came another hip injury. And now the broken foot.

"I thought it was just sprained, and they said it was broke," Porter said, shaking his head, following Friday's scrimmage that he watched from the stands with his foot in a cast.

The Redhawks lack inside depth behind anticipated starting forwards junior Tyler Stone and sophomore Nino Johnson, especially with Porter sidelined.

Porter's health problems almost certainly will mean additional playing time for redshirt freshman forward Jacob Tolbert, a former Notre Dame Regional High School standout who joined the program as a walk-on after Christmas last year and practiced with the squad.

True freshman center Colin Ferguson also likely will have to provide occasional minutes up front.

Southeast hosts Ouachita Baptist at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the first of its two exhibition games. The season opener is Nov. 9 at seventh-ranked Kansas.