BATON ROUGE — LSU coach John Brady announced on Tuesday that senior forward Jaime Lloreda is in Miami getting a second opinion on his injured left foot and that he is unlikely to dress out for the Tigers again this season.
Lloreda, a native of Colon, Panama, suffered recurring bursitis in his left Achilles in mid-January. He then bruised his left heel against Auburn on Feb. 18 and then sat out the Vanderbilt contest three days later. Lloreda returned to action against Mississippi State on Feb. 25 before sitting out the Kentucky contest on Feb. 29.
“Jaime went to Miami to have a doctor give him a second opinion on his foot,” Brady said after Tuesday’s practice. “It’s unlikely he’s going to ever dress out for us again. Jaime is a very competitive person and he just became extremely frustrated with not being able to play like he would like to play.”
“The doctor was going to look at him today and then get back with me hopefully sometime tonight. This is what Jaime chose to do. We’ll bring it to closure soon. We will continue to support Jaime in any way we can and we appreciate all he has done as a part of this basketball program at LSU.”
In 22 games this year, Lloreda led the Tigers with 16.9 points and 11.6 rebounds a contest.
“The time that Jaime was here, we did some positive things with our program,” Brady said. “We beat three teams that were ranked No. 1, went to the NCAA Tournament and we’re in position to go to the NCAA Tournament again.
“I’m disappointed a little bit, but I like the team we have and I like what we did against Kentucky on Sunday. Our team is excited about still having the opportunity to go to the NCAA Tournament.”
LSU hosts Ole Miss Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at the Maravich Assembly Center.