Arizona said freshman forward Daniel Batcho is out indefinitely after having surgery on his right knee last month, and that his timeline to return won't be reevaluated until late January.
It was the second time in just over two years that the 6-10 forward from France has suffered a difficult knee injury, though they are involving different knees and unrelated.
According to Euroleague.net, Batcho fell awkwardly on his left knee after making a layup during a FIBA U16 game in August 2018 and suffered a broken left kneecap that forced him to miss all of the 2018-19 season.
"It was the toughest thing I have gone through in my life," Batcho told Euroleague.net in February. "It was a tough rehab, but we have a lot of great physical therapy people at INSEP and they were with me every day."
After returning last season from his rehabilitation, Batcho helped his development by facing older opponents while playing with the Centre Federal du Basket-Ball club on France’s third-tier “national” level last season, averaging 8.8 points and 6.4 rebounds.
He also significantly raised his profile last February in the Adidas Next Generation Tournament in Belgrade, Serbia. In that event, Batcho averaged 14.8 points and 11.3 rebounds per game while shooting 69.7% from the field and earning tournament MVP honors. He had 24 points and 15 rebounds in CFBB’s loss to U18 Partizan in the championship game.
After committing to the Wildcats in April as part of their European recruiting blitz, Batcho was expected to play a reserve role inside for the Wildcats this season, though the Wildcats still have four post players for two spots: Ira Lee, Azuolas Tubelis, Jordan Brown and Christian Koloko.
Batcho is scheduled to appear Thursday afternoon when Arizona holds the first of two days of preseason media interviews with players via Zoom.
