Zakai Zeigler injury update: Tennessee guard's status revealed vs. Florida

Rick Barnes revealed some unfortunate news regarding Zakai Zeigler, as the Tennessee coach told ESPN’s Pete Thamel that the star guard will miss Saturday’s clash with Florida due to a knee injury.

“Tennessee senior Zakai Zeigler will not play against No. 5 Florida today, coach Rick Barnes told ESPN,” Thamel posted on X. “He missed practice on Thursday with a knee injury, which he hurt against Kentucky on Tuesday. He averages 12.3 points for the Vols.”

The injury Thamel alluded to occurred when Zeigler drove in for a layup with 2:17 remaining in the first half and his knee appeared to lock up. A foul was called on the play but Zeigler immediately stood and hobbled off the court toward the locker room.

Despite Tennessee fans’ immediate worst fears, Zeigler started the second half and finished the game. ESPN’s Molly McGrath provided further details on Zeigler’s injury during the broadcast, and it sounded promising at the time.

“Zeigler was manually evaluated by Tennessee’s medical staff. It was determined he didn’t need any X-rays,” McGrath said. “They did not fear any structural damage. When he ran out of the tunnel to warm up, the entire arena had some relieved cheers.”

Unfortunately for Ziegler, he wasn’t able to give Volunteers fans much else to cheer about on Tuesday. In the loss, Zeigler shot 5-18 from the field and a poor 1-11 from beyond the arc.

Without Zeigler on the court, it won’t be an easy showdown for Tennessee on Saturday. No. 5 Florida has won three games in a row and is one of the hottest teams in the country. Most recently, the Gators showed off their dominance in an 89-59 win over Georgia.

As usual, guard Walter Clayton Jr. was fantastic for the Gators. He finished the game with a team-high 17 points, five assists and five steals while shooting 7-12 from the floor. As one of the best on-ball defenders in the SEC, Zakai Zeigler would’ve likely been matched up with Clayton, but that won’t be the case.

It’ll all come to a head when Tennessee and Florida will square off at noon ET later this afternoon. The game will air live on ESPN. It remains to be seen how the Volunteers come out and play without their star guard, but they’ll need their whole team to pick up some slack during their conference clash against the Gators.

— On3’s Grant Grubbs contributed to this article.