Before the regular season ends, Mike Woodson hopes that Xavier Johnson can recover from his injury.

Xavier Johnson may be able to recover from an elbow injury in a week or two, according to Indiana coach Mike Woodson during a Monday night radio interview on “Inside Indiana Basketball.”

Mike Woodson, the coach of Indiana, isn’t ruling out Xavier Johnson making a comeback just yet.

On January 12 against Minnesota, Johnson sustained an elbow injury that kept him out of the game indefinitely. Throughout the eight games that followed, during which Indiana’s record dropped from 12-5 to 14-11, the 6-foot-3 senior point guard was not available.

Indiana will play Penn State on Saturday after hosting Nebraska on Wednesday. After that, Woodson suggested that Johnson’s earliest possible return date would be the Hoosiers’ home game against Wisconsin on February 27.

“We’re hoping he’ll return in the next week or two. On his radio broadcast on Monday, Woodson stated, “We hope.” “If that’s so, that’ll give us an opportunity to have him in at least the last three or four games and get ready for the Big Ten Tournament.”

Indiana’s next two games are against Maryland on March 3 and Minnesota on March 6, following the Wisconsin matchup. On March 10, the Hoosiers will play their senior day game at home against Michigan State.

Johnson’s past two seasons have been marred by poor injury luck. Averaging 12.1 points and 5.1 assists in 2021–22, he suffered a foot injury 11 games into the 2022–23 campaign, forcing him to miss the rest of the year. Despite having a sixth year of eligibility (2023–24) because to a medical hardship waiver, Johnson has only appeared in 14 of Indiana’s 25 games because of elbow and foot ailments. Johnson makes Indiana 8-6, but without him, they are 6-5.

“We were able to return him to our presumptive level after he put in the work this summer. Woodson stated, “He played well in the summer, but then all these ailments hit him again. “I’m sorry for him. Since this is, essentially, his final chance, I’m attempting to keep him in a positive frame of mind and state at the moment. Next season, he is unable to return.”

Johnson is posting career lows with 8.3 points, 2.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 0.9 steals a game in the middle of an injury-plagued season. While his shooting percentages from the field and three-point range are in line with his career norms (40.7% and 34.8%, respectively), his free throw percentage of 71.2% is a career low. However, Johnson was among the Big Ten’s top guards in the latter part of the 2021–2022 campaign when fit.

In Johnson’s absence, rookie Gabe Cupps has started 14 games. He is shooting 40.7% from three point range and averaging 2.8 points, 1.9 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 0.7 steals a game.