Missouri guard Caleb Grill to miss 5-7 weeks due to wrist injury, surgery

Missouri guard Caleb Grill will miss five to seven weeks with a wrist injury, the program announced Saturday. He suffered the injury against Wichita State on Sunday and had to undergo surgery, according to head coach Dennis Gates.

Grill has appeared in all nine games so far this year, including five starts, and ranks fourth on the Mizzou roster with 8.4 points per game. His injury will also keep him out for Saturday’s game against Kansas, but Gates said he could return sooner than the announced timeline.

“Unfortunately, Caleb suffered an injury to his wrist on his non-shooting hand Sunday after a hard fall,” Gates said in a statement announcing Grill’s injury. “I’m happy to report that he had a successful surgery earlier this week and is on track for a 5-7 week recovery with a chance of returning sooner. As a key piece of our team this season, Caleb will certainly be missed but we look forward to him making a full recovery and contributing to our success during the second half of the season.”

Grill is in his first season with Missouri after starting his career at Iowa State and UNLV. He played his freshman year with Iowa State before transferring to UNLV as a sophomore. However, when head coach T.J. Otzelberger left for the Cyclones, Grill returned to Ames for two more seasons.

Last year, Iowa State announced Grill was no longer with the program after a “failure to meet the program’s expectations” in early March. At the time, he ranked third on the ISU roster with 9.5 points per game while shooting a team-high 36.8% from three-point territory. He also averaged 4.0 rebounds and 1.4 assists per contest. He then entered the transfer portal and committed to Missouri in April.

“Dennis Gates is a tremendous leader and with the staff, support staff and players he has built around him has made it an elite program,” Grill told On3’s Joe Tipton. “I am very excited to get to play in front of the Missouri fan base and represent the state of Missouri. I’m truly blessed to be a part of a special organization and university and I’m ready to get to Columbia.”

Missouri is off to a 7-2 start to the season heading into Saturday’s game against Kansas. The Tigers had a big year in 2022-23 in Gates’ first season at the helm, finishing with a 25-10 record and an 11-7 mark in SEC play.