Todd Golden gives injury updates on Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — One of Florida’s starting guards has been cleared to play Saturday at No. 1 Auburn, but another is questionable for the game. Walter Clayton Jr. will return to the lineup against the Tigers, UF coach Todd Golden revealed Friday.
Walter Clayton missed the Vanderbilt game with a left ankle sprain that he suffered in Florida’s loss at Tennessee. He leads the team with 17.4 points and a career-high 3.8 assists per game.
“Walt will be playing on Saturday,” Golden said. “I think Walt is pretty close to 100%. And that was a challenge with Tuesday night, balancing knowing that we were going to be undermanned and have a real challenge playing Vanderbilt without him. Not a team you could take lightly or expect to win without one of your best players. But we also didn’t want to go the rest of the year with Walt less than 100%.
“In that moment, also knowing we have No. 1 on the road Saturday and then we go to Mississippi State next Tuesday, we’re in really difficult part of our schedule. So Tuesday was really, really important and really proud of our guys stepping up and finding a way to win that game and giving Walt an extra few days to get back close to 100%. He’s right there. I think you’ll see Walt at his best tomorrow.”
Alijah Martin is questionable for Florida
Golden also said that Alijah Martin is questionable with a hip pointer. Martin suffered the injury against Vandy and went to the locker room, but returned to the game and finished with eight points.
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Martin is the team’s second-leading scorer (15.3 PPG) and was in double figures in all seven SEC games last month. Despite Martin’s status still up in the air, Golden expects him to play at Auburn.
“Alijah is questionable. He had a pretty severe hit pointer in the first half on Tuesday night,” Golden said of Martin. “I thought he did a great job in the second half after struggling in the first and then dealing with the injury, coming back and playing really well, competing really well in the second half. Had some big baskets for us, got some big stops. He’s hasn’t been practicing the past couple days. Hopefully he can do some stuff (Friday). He’s a great competitor.
“I anticipate having him tomorrow, but we’ll see how he responds today to practice. … I think Alijah will be out there (Saturday). I do. Now, if he has a bad reaction in practice today or something, then we’ll adjust and we’ll figure it out. Fortunately, I thought Denzel [Aberdeen] did a wonderful job on Tuesday stepping up when we needed somebody to. And I think he’d be capable of doing it again if we needed him too, but I think we’ll be pretty much full strength going into this game.”
