Chris Jans updates Tolu Smith's status after foot scan

The Mississippi State basketball team has gotten off to a strong start to the season, sitting at 8-2 with arguably the team’s best player, Tolu Smith, currently sidelined due to injury.

But Smith is on the mend from an offseason foot injury and the outlook is positive for him to make a return to the floor in short order.

Smith recently received a new scan of his foot for doctors to make sure his recovery is going according to plan, and by the sound of things it went fairly well.

“The scan was good. It’s what the doctors wanted to see,” coach Chris Jans said. “He’ll be released to practice on Friday. Again, it’s part of the journey, part of the process. He’s not going to be out there for two hours going physical contact, but he is going to be released on Friday and we’ll just see how it reacts.”

The initial timeline for a return for Tolu Smith after the foot injury occurred was around the start of conference play.

Mississippi State still has three non-conference games before the SEC slate begins on Jan. 6 with a trip to South Carolina. Having Smith available for that would be massive.

Smith has had an outsized impact in the frontcourt for the Bulldogs the last three seasons. He’s coming off a campaign in which he averaged 15.7 points, 8.5 r4ebounds and 1.7 assists per game.

He’s a force in the frontcourt when fully healthy.

That said, it’s reasonable to expect there to be a little bit of lag time before Tolu Smith is 100% again. It will take him some time to get his conditioning back and get back into the flow of things with the team.

That’s why it’s important to get him started back up at practice as soon as possible. But Mississippi State will be careful with the rehab plan.

“He’ll get a little bit of time here, little bit of time there and we’ll start working him into the (mix),” Jans said. “He’ll be contact on Friday, so that’ll be his first day.”

In his career, Smith is responsible for 1,322 points and 768 rebounds. He’s one of the most productive returning players in the SEC.

Mississippi State’s next game will come against North Texas on Sunday, with the game tipping off at 4 p.m. ET.