Five-star McDonald's All-American suffers injury scare in national championship

Arkansas Razorbacks 2022 commit Jordan Walsh suffered an apparent ankle injury in the fourth quarter of the High School National Championship Game, broadcast on ESPN, and he was taken for evaluation from the medical team. The severity of Walsh’s injury remains unclear, but he did return to the game.

Following several commercial breaks and about five minutes of game-time — after presumably receiving some form of clearance from medical personnel — Walsh was seen jogging on the sidelines, apparently testing his ankle. There was a slight limp in his step. However, he would later return to the game with 1:05 left in the contest.

A native of Cedar Hill, Texas, Walsh is finishing up his final year at Link Year Prep. Link was trailing Montverde 47-42 with 7:04 left in the contest at the time of his injury. When he returned, Link was trialing by nine with under a minute left; the broadcast team did not provide further detail on whether he returned at 100 percent, but Walsh hesitated to run at full speed for the final minute.

At around the seven-minute mark, Link had the ball, and Walsh received a pass on the wing. He then fed the ball into his big man on the post, but the ball was quickly poked free by a defender. Walsh and a Motverde defender simultaneously dove after the loose ball, and Walsh’s ankle appeared to get stuck under the defender.

After a few seconds on the ground holding his ankle, Walsh’s teammates helped him up. He left the court on his own volition — but he did so by hopping on one foot to the bench, avoiding putting any pressure on his left ankle.

Walsh is a 6-foot-7, 190-pound senior from Texas, and the McDonald’s All-American is a five-star prospect, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. Additionally, he ranks as the No. 1 small forward in the 2022 recruiting cycle, the No. 12 recruit in the nation, and the No. 3 prospect coming out of the state of Texas.

Walsh committed to Arkansas over offers from many high-major schools, and he took visits to Arkansas, TCU, Oklahoma, Arizona State, Memphis, Texas and more. He joins a very high-profile recruiting class that ranks No. 3 in the country and No. 2 in the SEC, trailing only Kentucky, with three McDonald’s All-Americans: Walsh, Nick Smith and Derrian Ford.