Yet another Michigan State basketball foot injury has surfaced

Michigan State basketball and foot injuries are pretty much rivals at this point. Another Spartan has fallen victim.

This seems to be a common theme with Michigan State basketball year after year. Freshman Gehrig Normand was in a boot for the first time during Monday night’s 79-62 win over Oakland. This injury may not seem like a big deal to most, but I think the exact opposite.

Another boot. This time, Redshirt freshman Gehrig Normand. pic.twitter.com/O107MrLYDN

— Michigan State Content (@msucontent) December 18, 2023

Impact of Gehrig Normand’s injury

Some will tell you that a Normand injury isn’t a big deal. Gehrig is redshirting this season anyway so it’s not like this will impact our season, right? While that may be true, this injury impacts Michigan State in many other ways.

For starters, this limits the development of Gehrig as a player this year. Clearly, Tom Izzo didn’t think he was ready enough to play this year, so that means Normand needs as much practice time to improve before next season. Whether it’s working on on-court drills or gaining muscle in the weight room, all that comes to a standstill with this injury.

This injury also impacts the rest of the team in practice as well. Even though Gehrig won’t play in games this year, he still is a regular participant in practice. So he can contribute to the team’s success in practice by pushing his teammates and helping them get ready for each game.

That, again, ends because of this injury.

Gehrig Normand as a player

Gehrig was part of the elite freshman class that Izzo just brought in. They were the fifth-ranked 2023 recruiting class, with five-star Xavier Booker and four-stars Jeremy Fears and Coen Carr. Normand was a four-star as well and the 124th-best player in his class and No. 29 at his position.

Normand is an elite shooter and is someone who can stretch the floor for our team. I argued earlier this season that his shooting was what our team needed most. But my opinion obviously doesn’t matter and Izzo still decided to redshirt him.

I see a lot of similarities in his game to former Spartan star Matt McQuaid who was also an elite shooter who could take guys off the dribble as well. Funny enough, both Matt and Gehrig are from Texas, too. McQuaid turned into one of the fan favorites by the time his career was over, so if Gehrig can have a similar impact throughout his career, then he, too, will end his time in East Lansing as another legendary sharpshooter.