Sources: Alabama basketball forward Alex Tchikou suffers Achilles injury

[Tony_Tsoukalas]

Alabama basketball experienced its first setback of the season as freshman forward Alex Tchikou is set for surgery this week after suffering an Achilles injury, multiple sources have told BamaInsider.

Tchikou, a native of Paris, France who played at Dream City Christian School in Glendale, Ariz. last season, is rated as the No. 36 overall player and No. 6 power forward in this year’s class. The 6-foot-11, 205-pounder offers a nice perimeter threat for his size and was thought to make an impact on the Crimson Tide this season.

Alabama had two players suffer season-ending injuries last fall as forwards Juwan Gary and James Rojas both injured their knees during the preseason.

 

[llgrantland]

And so it begins.....

 

[RTRfromGA]

Is there any way this is like a 3 months recovery timeline?

 

[IgnatiusJacquesReilly]

 

[milso47]

season ending i am sure. hate it for the team and alex.

 

[grady55]

Is there any way this is like a 3 months recovery timeline?

An Achilles injury normally takes up to a year for full recovery...

 

[TCeeezy]

bad words... my head is full of bad words. So sorry to hear about this. Frenchy was going to ball out this year. 😢

 

[Bocat69]

Hate to hear this. Frenchi was going to provide some depth down low this year. Rojas is still a mystery, Reese playing time just increased, Bruner should see all the minutes he can handle. Ambrose-Hilton will now see 10 minutes a game at the 4 spot and Herb will eat up the other 30 minutes at the 4 spot.

 

[Zach_12]

Dang that's terrible. Still excited for the season but absolutely terrible

 

[aggietider]

So it’s torn? Is the basketball strength staff learning from the new guys in football?

 

[CrmsnTusk4]

Alabama Basketball: When good things happen, bad things are sure to follow.

Get well soon, young man.

 

[D Isaiah T Billings-Clyde7]

DAMMIT. Hate it for him and the team. Was really looking forward to seeing how Oats used this type of player.

 

[Sweetlou10]

This makes me... rather angry.

 

[BAMACOASTIE]

Well that sucks!!!!!

 

[cpat4bama]

First Soroka now Tchikou

 

[mr4bama]

Alabama basketball experienced its first setback of the season as freshman forward Alex Tchikou is set for surgery this week after suffering an Achilles injury, multiple sources have told BamaInsider.

Tchikou, a native of Paris, France who played at Dream City Christian School in Glendale, Ariz. last season, is rated as the No. 36 overall player and No. 6 power forward in this year’s class. The 6-foot-11, 205-pounder offers a nice perimeter threat for his size and was thought to make an impact on the Crimson Tide this season.

Alabama had two players suffer season-ending injuries last fall as forwards Juwan Gary and James Rojas both injured their knees during the preseason.

there is no bright side, but maybe he can put on some muscle and weight.

 

[winin11]

Really sorry for him and it just makes me sick to my stomach.

 

[BaselineLeaner4]

 

[RammerJammer210]

How big of a loss is this @Harper41 ? What type of contribution do you think the staff was expecting this season?

 

[milso47]

Alabama Basketball: When good things happen, bad things are sure to follow.

Get well soon, young man.

damn sure seems that way does n't it tusk.

son of gun

 

[BaselineLeaner4]

How big of a loss is this @Harper41 ? What type of contribution do you think the staff was expecting this season?

Im no Harper but this is a big loss in my opinion. Given Reese's play down the stretch and Rojas coming off an injury, I'd expect he was destined for ~20 minutes a game, if not more.. He is our most athletic big.

 

[cpat4bama]

Im no Harper but this is a big loss in my opinion. Given Reese's play down the stretch and Rojas coming off an injury, I'd expect he was destined for ~20 minutes a game, if not more.. He is our most athletic big.

He was the guy I was looking forward to contributing right away for sure. Guys that tall that can knock down the three don’t come around often.

 

[jtr4dad]

It's a big loss IMO. You don't lose a top 40 recruit and it not have a significant impact. My guess is that Ambrose-Hylton will probably get a lot of Tchikou's minutes, which should accelerate his development. If there's a silver lining in this situation, that might be it.

 

[Tony_Tsoukalas]

UPDATE: Alex Tchikou has been ruled out for the 2020-21 season after suffering an Achilles injury. The 6-11, 225-pound freshman underwent successful surgery on his torn right Achilles Wednesday morning and is expected to make a full recovery.

Surgery was performed by Dr. Norman Waldrop of Andrews Sports Medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, Ala.

“It’s really tough to see Alex go down for the season,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “Alex is someone who arrived in early August and had quickly established himself in the locker room. He has been a great fit with our program in terms of his work ethic and character. More importantly, he is an upbeat young man with a terrific attitude about him which will be important as he begins his rehabilitation. We are fortunate to have the best medical team in the nation here at The University of Alabama and they will be alongside him every step of the way. We know he’s going to come back even stronger, and we look forward to getting him on the court next season.”

 

[cpat4bama]

UPDATE: Alex Tchikou has been ruled out for the 2020-21 season after suffering an Achilles injury. The 6-11, 225-pound freshman underwent successful surgery on his torn right Achilles Wednesday morning and is expected to make a full recovery.

Surgery was performed by Dr. Norman Waldrop of Andrews Sports Medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, Ala.

“It’s really tough to see Alex go down for the season,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “Alex is someone who arrived in early August and had quickly established himself in the locker room. He has been a great fit with our program in terms of his work ethic and character. More importantly, he is an upbeat young man with a terrific attitude about him which will be important as he begins his rehabilitation. We are fortunate to have the best medical team in the nation here at The University of Alabama and they will be alongside him every step of the way. We know he’s going to come back even stronger, and we look forward to getting him on the court next season.”

 

[jmillerbama]

Two things!
1. Why the hell does our basketball team feel alot like Bama football under Cochran with these damn injuries! Lord i hope this isnt the annual norm! We finally get a stretch four and now we dont!🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤬🤬🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

2. Im a dealing with an achilles injury as we speak! And although it was a rupture, it was wear tear over ny Army career, it is still very hatmrd to recover! I had ny achilles detached cleaned out, my heal bone shaved down and reattached! Including a nerve block that he will probably get to numb his entire leg if they are doing surgery! Im six weeks into my recovery and i still cant walk without crutches and my t

 

[NovaTiger77]

Hopefully he can make a quick recovery and it isn’t a deal like Juwan Gary is still going through with his knee where he’s not fully cleared a year plus later. It would be great if Frentchi is at least fully cleared for all of fall practice next year, if not part of the summer, so he can get all of those reps.

On top of that, my hope is that since he’s a basketball player, we don’t see the same type of two-year process of him getting back to be the same player he was before the injury that we see all the time with football players. Like with what Dylan Moses is going through now, it seems like our football players who have had ACL tears don’t return to being the player that they were pre-injury until the second full season after, even though they’re normally fully cleared medically 6-8 months after the injury.

I wasn’t a basketball player, but I’ve always imagined basketball as the easiest major sport to get the closest simulation to a real game in practice, while also allowing you to do it for the most volume as compared to the other sports. In football, you can’t just scrimmage every practice, or even do high-volume live tackling for obvious reasons. In baseball you can do more scrimmaging than in football, but probably not as much as you would be doing if coaches knew their pitcher’s arms wouldn’t fall off. However, in basketball you can scrimmage for some duration every practice if you wanted to. Plus, the players can play legit pick-up games outside of normal practice. The point of saying all this is I hope if Frentchi is cleared at least a few months before the season that he’s able to fully regain confidence in his leg, and also regain full strength and mobility, before the season starts. Definitely might be wishful thinking, but just something I was thinking about.

 

[BamaHudson]

Hopefully he can make a quick recovery and it isn’t a deal like Juwan Gary is still going through with his knee where he’s not fully cleared a year plus later. It would be great if Frentchi is at least fully cleared for all of fall practice next year, if not part of the summer, so he can get all of those reps.

On top of that, my hope is that since he’s a basketball player, we don’t see the same type of two-year process of him getting back to be the same player he was before the injury that we see all the time with football players. Like with what Dylan Moses is going through now, it seems like our football players who have had ACL tears don’t return to being the player that they were pre-injury until the second full season after, even though they’re normally fully cleared medically 6-8 months after the injury.

I wasn’t a basketball player, but I’ve always imagined basketball as the easiest major sport to get the closest simulation to a real game in practice, while also allowing you to do it for the most volume as compared to the other sports. In football, you can’t just scrimmage every practice, or even do high-volume live tackling for obvious reasons. In baseball you can do more scrimmaging than in football, but probably not as much as you would be doing if coaches knew their pitcher’s arms wouldn’t fall off. However, in basketball you can scrimmage for some duration every practice if you wanted to. Plus, the players can play legit pick-up games outside of normal practice. The point of saying all this is I hope if Frentchi is cleared at least a few months before the season that he’s able to fully regain confidence in his leg, and also regain full strength and mobility, before the season starts. Definitely might be wishful thinking, but just something I was thinking about.

Good point about scrimmage ability between sports

 

[NovaTiger77]

Two things!
1. Why the hell does our basketball team feel alot like Bama football under Cochran with these damn injuries! Lord i hope this isnt the annual norm! We finally get a stretch four and now we dont!🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤬🤬🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

2. Im a dealing with an achilles injury as we speak! And although it was a rupture, it was wear tear over ny Army career, it is still very hatmrd to recover! I had ny achilles detached cleaned out, my heal bone shaved down and reattached! Including a nerve block that he will probably get to numb his entire leg if they are doing surgery! Im six weeks into my recovery and i still cant walk without crutches and my t

I’m sorry to hear that. I hope your recovery improves.

I do have a different experience from when I worked at a gym right after I graduated college. One of my coworkers who was the same age as me fully tore his Achilles, but his recovery was ridiculously quick. He ran track in college at Georgetown, and was definitely gifted genetically. I remember him saying the doctors told him his capillaries were wide open and that they expected him to make a very quick recovery. He ended up being able to walk around in a boot three weeks after surgery. We weren’t super close, so I don’t remember the exact timeline of his recovery from there, but every time I saw him working out, he was always doing more in terms of jogging/running, agility stuff, etc. I’m pretty sure he was back sprinting in less than 5 months. Now I’m sure if he were still in college running track it would have taken him much longer than that to return to his pre-injury performance, but considering Frentchi is also a high-level athlete blessed genetically, plus 5 years younger at the time of injury than this guy was, hopefully he can have a similar speedy recovery.

Just my one anecdotal experience with Achilles recoveries.

 

[NovaTiger77]

Good point about scrimmage ability between sports

Thanks. I think I first had that thought when there was talk that Quinerly was our best player in practice last year, and then he posted a highlight video of him balling out in intrasquad scrimmages. There were people here who were dismissive of the best player talk, but I felt like if that statement was being made by people close to the program after seeing him in practice for a full-season, then we could feel pretty confident in that. Of course you can’t simulate the pressure and environment of a real game in practice, but you can’t do that in any sport.

 

[BamaHudson]

Thanks. I think I first had that thought when there was talk that Quinerly was our best player in practice last year, and then he posted a highlight video of him balling out in intrasquad scrimmages. There were people here who were dismissive of the best player talk, but I felt like if that statement was being made by people close to the program after seeing him in practice for a full-season, then we could feel pretty confident in that. Of course you can’t simulate the pressure and environment of a real game in practice, but you can’t do that in any sport.

It makes a lot of sense, I hadn't thought about it in the context you shared and I enjoy that sort of perspective-shaping. You really can't practice to the same effect with any other sport, basketball is the only one that gives that level of "full go" whenever you have enough guys together to do it. I'm hoping Frentchi benefits from this

 

[Sweetlou10]

Thanks. I think I first had that thought when there was talk that Quinerly was our best player in practice last year, and then he posted a highlight video of him balling out in intrasquad scrimmages. There were people here who were dismissive of the best player talk, but I felt like if that statement was being made by people close to the program after seeing him in practice for a full-season, then we could feel pretty confident in that. Of course you can’t simulate the pressure and environment of a real game in practice, but you can’t do that in any sport.

I’m one of those dismissive guys. I expect him to be a serviceable point guard. People close to the program have said almost every transfer who had to sit in the last decade was the best player on the team.

 

[milso47]

I’m one of those dismissive guys. I expect him to be a serviceable point guard. People close to the program have said almost every transfer who had to sit in the last decade was the best player on the team.

i also am in a wait and see mode on Q. i hope he is as good as advertised. not really another true point guard on the team.

also waiting before i get too excited about bruner as i have already expressed

 

[PiKappUA]

Q is a really good player. Is he the next all American point guard? Time will tell. I think he will be very serviceable and have a good year. Bruner is one of the hardest workers on the team. He will be a big help if he can stay healthy. The one I’m more surprised about is how good Rojas has developed.

 

[NovaTiger77]

I’m one of those dismissive guys. I expect him to be a serviceable point guard. People close to the program have said almost every transfer who had to sit in the last decade was the best player on the team.

You all need to stop extrapolating past experiences and letdowns to this current team and regime. Being a reasonable fan is commendable and those who are completely blind homers are the worst. But you are still a fan. Fan’s are inherently supposed to be optimistic. Add on to that the fact that any objective person not affiliated with Alabama can see that this team is very talented and that also the trajectory of this program is totally different than past regimes, and it’s even more lame to be so guarded. That includes prognostications on players who have been praised by the coaching staff. This isn’t just directed at you and your post, but everyone who is in wait and see mode with this team before they get their hopes up. @milso47

 

[Sweetlou10]

You all need to stop extrapolating past experiences and letdowns to this current team and regime. Being a reasonable fan is commendable and those who are completely blind homers are the worst. But you are still a fan. Fan’s are inherently supposed to be optimistic. Add on to that the fact that any objective person not affiliated with Alabama can see that this team is very talented and that also the trajectory of this program is totally different than past regimes, and it’s even more lame to be so guarded. That includes prognostications on players who have been praised by the coaching staff. This isn’t just directed at you and your post, but everyone who is in wait and see mode with this team before they get their hopes up. @milso47

I’m very optimistic about this team! I believe they have the depth that we have not had in a very long time. But, as a lifelong die hard Alabama basketball fan, it’s impossible to not be in wait and see mode. I’ve gotten my hopes up one too many times to see a team that was supposed to be amazing end up on the wrong side of the bubble. With regards to Quinnerly, I’m just not impressed. I’ve seen the footage. I’ve watched him in person. I don’t think he’s a McDonalds All American caliber player. I do think he’ll be a solid player that doesn’t kill us but also doesn’t set the world on fire.

 

[milso47]

///

Q is a really good player. Is he the next all American point guard? Time will tell. I think he will be very serviceable and have a good year. Bruner is one of the hardest workers on the team. He will be a big help if he can stay healthy. The one I’m more surprised about is how good Rojas has developed.

thanks. always value your info

 

[mtmax]

Very good thread. We have heard many times over the past 10 years that the player sitting out for the year was the best player on the team, only to be let down when he became eligible. In the case with JQ, Oats is the one who brought this up saying something to the effect that on many days he was the best player on the floor.