Harvard's Casey Undergoes Surgery

What’s more impressive than helping lead the Harvard men’s basketball program to a share of its first-ever Ivy League title?

Doing it with a broken foot—just ask sophomore forward Kyle Casey.

Casey, who missed the early portion of the 2010-11 season after breaking his foot in the preseason, in fact broke the same bone in his right foot again early in the Ivy League season.

While sitting out the remainder of the season was an option, Casey continued to play with the injury.

“It was either sit out for the rest of the season and let the thing heal, or play through the pain and the discomfort and tough it out and take care of it at the end of the season,” Casey said. “I definitely wanted to be on the court with my teammates, and I think my teammates wanted me on the court, so I just tried to man up and play through this injury and do the best I [could].”

Casey underwent surgery yesterday morning at New England Baptist Hospital to have a screw inserted in his right foot that will provide added support to the bone.

“Everything went well,” said Casey as he recovered at University Health Services this afternoon. “Right now I’m on the road to recovery, and I’m just going to rehab really hard until I get back around in mid-summer, get in shape, and get ready for next season.”

Despite the injury, which Casey estimated kept him at 80 percent strength throughout the majority of conference schedule, the 2009-10 Ivy League Rookie of the Year averaged 10.7 points and 6 rebounds per game during his sophomore campaign.

“It really tested my mental strength,” Casey said. “It definitely limited me physically, I think. It was a little more difficult for me to be as explosive as I wanted to.”

“It’s something that I think in the future will just make me a stronger and better person and player,” the forward added. “But going through it was not an easy task.”