USC’s Alijah Arenas to miss 6-8 months with knee injury

USC’s first-year basketball player Alijah Arenas will be held six to eight months after undergoing a knee injury that will require surgery, school announced on Wednesday.

Arenas, the son of the former All-Star Gilbert Arenas of the NBA, was a five-star recruit who obtained his secondary school diploma a year earlier to adapt to Trojan horses.

“Alijah is a huge worker, teammate, competitor and nobody,” said USC coach Eric Musselman. “It is naturally disappointed not to be able to take the court to start the season, but his health is our priority 1. We will not doubt that it will come back even stronger. We are impatient to support it during this process.”

Arenas had just made his debut in practice earlier this month following a car accident in April which left it hospitalized for almost a week.

The accident occurred when Arenas lost control of its Tesla Cybertruck and crashed into a tree. He said in June that the keyboard and the car steering wheel would not respond. The car caught fire, but Arenas was able to break the window on the driver’s side and go out with the help of passers -by.

Arenas was transported to a hospital and put in a coma induced due to its inhalation of smoke. He was released from the hospital less than a week later without any major injury.

A 6-footer 6-inch shooter from the Chatsworth high school (California), Arenas, was an all American of McDonald’s and the recruit n ° 13 in ESPN 100. He scored more than 3000 points in just three basketball seasons in high school, establishing the record for the CIF section of the city.

Arenas was to start the perimeter of the USC alongside transfers Rodney Rice (Maryland) and Chad Baker-Mazara (Auburn).