The Wisconsin Badgers' injury situation is becoming clearer after Kelly Sheffield's latest press conference. Wisconsin has been without Jaela Auguste for a couple of weeks and Grace Egan for the last few games. We are entering into a little bit of a good news, bad news situation for those two.
Auguste did show up in the Texas match in the final set, maybe in a desperation play by Sheffield to see if Wisconsin could pull off a stunning reversal of fortune. It appeared Auguste was close and shew as clearly suited up, so Sheffield decided to pull that string. In this press conference, he said that Auguste could have gone the full game but really wanted to give her more time. "If we were in the NCAA tournament, she probably wouldn't have missed a match," he said.
That's the good news for Jaela Auguste, and Sheffield says that she will be "full-go" this next week. The bad news may be coming from Grace Egan. Sheffield said that he doesn't want to get into it because "it's better coming from the player." He notes that her personal Instagram will reveal whatever is going on with her.
The reality is, it sounds much less injury-related than something personal for Egan. Hopefully, everything is okay in her world, but until we know more, it's wrong to speculate and assume.
Wisconsin may be without Grace Egan for awhile but Jaela Auguste is fully back
Related: Kelly Sheffield's reason for constantly changing Wisconsin's lineup is secretly genius
Egan is an important player to this team, both as a veteran leader and the ability to play right side or outside. Her attacks have already saved this team this season, and her ability to help lift the rest of the team and nurture the freshmen has been a key part of the process in this early season.
However long she misses, she will be greatly missed, and it's already been a hole that can't easily be filled. There's no other Grace Egan on the roster or in the entire world. So, this "injury" update has the potential to be bad news on the volleyball side of things.
The good news comes from Auguste's ability to return and be full-go. The biggest weakness lately for the Badgers has been in the middle and consistently getting blocks up. Wisconsin struggled through most of the match against Texas to get them out of system. And when they could get them off, the Badgers couldn't finish long rallies.
The need for Auguste to be back is vital. However, it comes at a point in the season when the Badgers finally have a cooling-off period from top-level competition. The next two games are against Marquette and Milwaukee. Big Ten play starts shortly after with four straight ranked opponents. It all begins with a match against No. 25 Oregon followed by No. 9 Purdue, No. 16 Indiana, and No. 14 Minnesota.
So, while there is a bit of a schedule breather with the next two, it ramps up quickly. Hopefully, at that point, injuries are no longer part of the narrative. We can hope.
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