Auburn forward Jaylin Williams not expected to need surgery in latest knee injury update

Sunday morning, some positive news broke regarding Auburn forward Jaylin Williams after he left the Kentucky game with an injury.

Justin Hokanson of AuburnLive tweeted out the following update on the Tiger veteran the morning after he’d suffered the injury:

“Source: Auburn’s Jaylin Williams isn’t expected to need surgery and will return soon after a knee injury against Kentucky. Williams underwent his MRI this morning. That’s great news for the Tigers.”

He added that the timetable on a return isn’t clear. However, it appears Williams will certainly be back at some point.

“We’ll see how long Williams is out, that’ll be up to Bruce Pearl and Williams.”

Given how bad the injury looked at the time, plus Williams’ inability to return to the game, there was fear he’d suffered a major injury. But luckily, it looks like he’ll be good to return in the near future.

That’s a big sigh of relief for Bruce Pearl, who seemed pretty worried about the senior leader after the loss on Saturday night. He made this comment when asked about the loss of Williams at the time:

“We were in range when he got hurt. We think he’s gotta have something. We think it’s something. Not just a bang.”

Well, there is some injury to Jaylin Williams, but the Tigers can eliminate the worst-case scenario of a season-ending knee injury.

Williams went up for what could have been a remarkable dunk in the second half, but missed, and went to the ground awkwardly. He was down on the pain for a number of minutes and had his right knee checked out by trainers for a few minutes, before heading to the Auburn locker room. Williams could not put any pressure on his right leg as his left the floor with assistance from medical staff.

With over five minutes remaining in the game, ESPN sideline reporter Jess Sims updated the status of Williams. “Hey guys. Quick update. Jaylin Williams is still in the training room and is officially confirmed out for the remainder of the game with a knee injury,” Sims noted.

Before exiting the game, Williams had three points on 1 of 5 shooting from the field. He’s been one of the Tigers most complete players all season, stuffing the stat sheet with 13.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game. In conference play, he’s been even better, averaging 14.5 points per game while shooting 44.7% from 3.