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X-rays on Florida guard Kasey Hill's injured ankle came back negative, Florida announced Tuesday, and Hill's injury is confirmed as a high ankle sprain.
That's good news, in a sense, because it means Hill only has to recover from the sprain, and not a more serious structural issue. But Hill's still saddled with one of the tougher injuries for athletes to deal with, especially for a basketball player reliant on being able to cut quickly with his feet.
His recovery period has been estimated at "at least a month" by Billy Donovan, but Donovan's eternal early-season pessismism and exceedingly pessimistic talk on illnesses this year — Michael Frazier II's mononucleosis ended up costing him zero games, and Dorian Finney-Smith played in last Saturday's win over Arkansas-Little Rock one day after Donovan indicated he couldn't go due to illness — might lead one to be more optimistic about Hill's return being swifter. Hill's own professed optimism, according to a friend, is more reason to have some of our own.
There's historical precedent for Gators getting back quickly from high ankle sprains, too. The Gainesville Sun's Kevin Brockway mentioned on Twitter on Tuesday that Al Horford returned from a high ankle sprain in two weeks in 2006; Horford suffered his sprain on December 11, 2006, but played 12 days later, in Florida's memorable beatdown of Ohio State ... despite indications that he wouldn't. (Alligator Army was a very different place, once upon a time.) Horford got 28 minutes off the bench in that game, scored 11 points, and led all players with 11 rebounds.
Last season, Casey Prather suffered a high ankle sprain against LSU, but was back in action against South Carolina, though he played just three minutes in that game, and six in his next one against Missisippi. After that, though, Prather played double-digit minutes in all but one of Florida's remaining games in the 2012-13 season.
Andy Hutchins is Alligator Army's managing editor. Follow Alligator Army on Twitter and Facebook.