Michigan Basketball: Injuries become an issue for Franz Wagner in Europe

Michigan basketball’s star recruit Franz Wagner missed part of the last two games due to injury, will he be able to play Wednesday vs Russia?

Normally, Michigan basketball fans wouldn’t be too concerned about what’s going on with the German 18U national team. Yet, that’s the team that future Wolverines star Franz Wagner is playing for right now, which is how it got into the conversation.

Michigan basketball head coach Juwan Howard is also in Europe, making the trip to meet Franz and watch him play in the European 18U championships. So far though, things haven’t necessarily gone as planned for Wagner or his team.

The Germans are just 1-2, dropping the first two games to Serbia and Turkey before rebounding to knock off Great Britain. Of greater concern is the fact the tournament hasn’t gone so well for Wagner either.

After scoring 29 points on Serbia recently, Wagner struggled in this last meeting, making just 2-of-9 shots for five points. He also grabbed five rebounds and notched five fouls.

In the next game against Turkey, Wagner looked more like himself, making 2-of-5 shots from the field and 5-of-8 from the free-throw line. That gave him a total of nine points, however, he was only able to stay on the floor for 16 minutes due to a back issue.

Obviously, that’s the last thing Wolverines fans wanted to hear and that concern only grew when Wagner sat out the game against Great Britain due to the injury.

Germany was still able to win on Monday without Wagner and that set up a contest with Russia Wednesday. The question is, will Wagner be able to play?

Certainly, it doesn’t matter to me or any other Michigan basketball fan if Germany beats the Russian team. But I do care about Wagner’s health and I would rather see him on the floor than on the bench because he’s still hurt. The worst thing he could do is try to play while still being injured.

The 17-year old should bounce back quickly and if he’s 100 percent, it would be nice to see him shine in this tournament after a lackluster start. The bigger issue is what he will do once he gets to Ann Arbor and puts on a Michigan basketball uniform.

And while the season is still a few months away, it’s much closer than we realize, so the injury situation of Wagner is definitely something to keep an eye on as it’s the last thing Michigan basketball needs right now.