Tennessee basketball big man JP Estrella exited the Vols’ 91-66 win over Rice with a left leg injury on Monday night. Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes met with the media following the game and addressed the injury but did not have a definitive update.
“They don’t know what it is. All I could tell you is it’s a left leg injury,” Barnes said. “It looked like when that play happened, the guy went between his legs and it looked like, from what I could tell, maybe he hyperextended it. They’ll do more tomorrow. But for now all I can tell you is it’s his left leg. They’re, caution would probably be the word for it, but we’ll see tomorrow.”
Estrella suffered the injury late in the first half when he was bending down to grab a loose ball when a Rice player made an attempt to grab the basketball and pushed Estrella’s left leg back. The 6-foot-11 forward immediately grabbed his left leg and was in clear pain.
The redshirt sophomore limped off the floor with the help of two Tennessee staffers and went straight up the tunnel instead of going to the Vols’ bench. Estrella later returned to the bench in the second half.
Estrella has been a breakout star for Tennessee early this season, averaging 17.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists through the Vols’ first three games of the season. The redshirt sophomore had recorded double-doubles in each of Tennessee’s last two games.
More From RTI: Three Quick Takeaways As Tennessee Basketball Dominates Rice To Stay Unbeaten
Injuries have plagued Estrella’s career to this point with the former blue-chip recruit missing nearly the entirety of the 2024-25 season after undergoing foot surgery last November.
“We all hurt for him because he worked so hard to come back from the foot injury,” Barnes said. “And that was a freaky thing. I mean, during the game, I thought, I don’t know how you can— I mean, it was an inadvertent play, but the guy just kind of fell through his legs and his knee was locked. It’s one of those inadvertent things that happened.
“He’ll do everything he can to get back. And we’re just hoping that it’s nothing crazy, but other than maybe a hyper extended leg.”
Estrella rehabbed the injury for the entirety of the season and much of the offseason but still made major improvements to his game and has looked like an interior scoring threat that Tennessee has not had since Grant Williams.
The Vols play their fifth of five buy games to open the season on Thursday night against Tennessee State. The challenge gets much greater for Tennessee next week when they travel to Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival.
Tennessee will play three games, most likely, against power five opponents in either three or four days before traveling back east for three more power five matchups to open up December.
