Kerr Kriisa is in a ‘race to get healthy’ while weighing medical redshirt: “He is (closer).”

Mark Pope broke the news this week Kerr Kriisa was, in fact, eligible for a medical redshirt to play a sixth and final season of college basketball in 2025-26 should he miss the remainder of the season due to injury. Undergoing surgery on a broken foot back in December, the fifth-year guard has missed 17 games and counting with just five more left on the schedule in the regular season before the SEC and NCAA Tournaments in March.

“Kerr could get a medical redshirt because he meets qualifications,” Pope said Monday. “The two qualifications are less than 30 percent of the games played — he’s barely under 30 percent — and not played past the mid-point. So that is a possibility.”

At the time, he said Kriisa was ‘anxiously trying to get back into this thing’ and would try to play this season if he could. The redshirt was just something worth keeping in his back pocket just in case.

Is it worth it, though, considering how far behind he is in the ramp-up process with the window closing by the day? Would he rather punt on this season knowing it could guarantee him another year of college basketball? Pope says no. When asked about Kriisa’s long-term status ahead of Kentucky’s trip to Tuscaloosa, he said No. 77 will play the second he’s ready to play and he’s made progress.

Will it be enough progress to play before that window officially closes? That’s the only question.

“With Kerr, it’s just a race to get healthy, if he can. That’s kind of the deal, can he get healthy? Can he get there? We’re still farther away than we anticipated being and so certainly the window is getting tight right now,” Pope told KSR on Friday. “Where he is right now, the steps he would have to take from here to get back on the court to be cleared to play are a little bit extensive, but we’re kind of fighting every day the best we can to see if we can get him closer. And he is, he is. He’s working to do that, too.

“If we can find a way for him to play, he’s going to come help us play if he can.”

When asked if Kriisa had discussed the what-if of a sixth season, Pope said the focus is on the now and taking steps toward a return in 2024-25, no matter how small they may be. They can cross the redshirt bridge when they get there, but until then, they want to see if he can help this team as February turns to March.

“Right now, we’re just in the day-to-day of just saying, ‘Hey, can we make the next step? Can we just get to the next step?,’” Pope said. “There’s also frustration with how your body responds sometimes too, right? So that’s just a process of trying to figure that part out, and it’s much more next step than it is end step.”

The hourglass is running out of sand in a hurry, but it isn’t out quite yet.

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