Foot injury a simple 'bump in the road' for Aaron Bradshaw

Injuries happen. Just because Aaron Bradshaw is a 7-0 shot-making forward with length and athleticism doesn’t make him immune to the bug. And it bit him pretty good back in the spring, a broken foot that ultimately required surgery and has kept him off the basketball floor the entire summer and into the fall.

Bradshaw’s transition from high school to college hasn’t been like Kentucky’s other six freshmen signees, who all got to Lexington in June and immediately got to work. They all got to participate in live game action in Toronto at the 2023 GLOBL JAM in July. And they’ve all gotten to return to workouts ahead of preseason practices officially starting this week. Meanwhile, the Roselle, N.J. native has had to hurry up and wait, watching his teammates from the sidelines.

“It’s been hell, I’m not gonna lie,” Bradshaw told Cameron Mills on Behind Kentucky Basketball. “Just overcoming a lot of things.”

He suffered the injury in the McDonald’s All-American Game back in March, followed by surgery in June. Bradshaw spent those two months deciding whether to let his foot heal naturally — a shorter timetable for return, but a greater chance of reinjury down the road — or going through with the procedure. The latter ensured his availability for the upcoming season, so that’s what he chose.

“He said, ‘I want an operation because I want to play,'” John Calipari said.

After listening to the doctors and learning all of the facts, Bradshaw was never concerned about the lasting impact of the injury or surgery. Again, everyone gets hurt at one point or another. His time just happened to come now.

“Not really (concerned), you feel me? That’s just a little setback, that’s just a little bump in the road,” he said. “If I dwell on that and keep saying, ‘Oh, I’m hurt,’ you’re never going to go anywhere. It’s a part of the game. Everybody gets hurt. (Michael) Jordan went through the flu, Bron got his ankle (injury), everybody goes through something. I can’t get mad or frustrated that it happened to me.”

That doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard watching his teammates play the game he loved, knowing he could be on the floor making an impact.

“I had points in time where I was like, ‘Damn, I wish I could do that.’ But it happened to me,” Bradshaw added. “So I have to do everything I can to get right, wherever I want to get.”

Now he’s in the home stretch of his recovery, itching to play — without taking shortcuts that could lead to setbacks. The 7-0 forward knows how important this season is for the rest of his basketball career. He’ll admit he was in a rush to get out of high school and move on to the next chapter in his life.

But that was to get to this, playing at the University of Kentucky.

“I’m just trying to better myself every day,” Bradshaw said. “That’s my main thing, my main goal now. It wasn’t like that before, high school wasn’t like that. I was just worried about getting it done and getting out of there.”

The five-star freshman didn’t provide an official update on his return-to-play date — that’s certain to come in the next week or two with Media Day and Big Blue Madness around the corner. But his mindset is clearly where it needs to be ahead of the regular season.