Injury updates: Ayanna Patterson dealing with shoulder injury

UConn women’s basketball appears to have avoided more major injury trouble. Earlier this week, Ayanna Patterson was spotted wearing a hefty brace at a youth basketball camp. Luckily, it doesn’t appear to be too serious, though she may not be ready for the start of the season.

“Yanna just whacked her shoulder against somebody… So that set her back a little bit,” Geno Auriemma said on Friday. “I don't know about Yanna (being healthy for the first game) because she's still in that sling. They're restricting her range of motion.”

That’s the only bad news on the injury front at the moment. Morgan Cheli, who’s been limited through the summer and fall with a hamstring issue from high school, will be a full-go when the Huskies take the court against Boston University on Nov. 7.

“If Morgan looks the way she's looked the last couple of days in practice, yeah, I would expect it,” Auriemma said before asking how far off the opener is. “20 days? Oh yeah, she’ll definitely be playing.”

Meanwhile, there were positive updates on both Azzi Fudd and Aubrey Griffin as they make their way back from torn ACLs. Fudd, who seems to be trending towards a late November, early December return, is “pretty far along”, albeit rusty according to Auriemma. As for Griffin, she has her own target date in mind.

“This is what she told me: ‘I'll be back before January 1,’ which was a surprise to me,” Auriemma said.

The coach didn’t provide any update on Caroline Ducharme’s status on Friday.