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MARCUS GINYARD
Listen to Audio (9:29)
Opening comments:
"The decision was very tough for me, not easy at all dealing with a lot of
different things that we had to talk about in discussing this and making this decision. I think the coaching
staff, my family and I have come to the decision that ultimately is going to
be best for me. I guess at this point we’re just excited about challenge that I have ahead of me. I’m just excited to get back healthy again and to be able to practice again and to get out there with my teammates and be able to help them get to goals that we originally planned on this year.”
Have the doctors told you what is wrong with your foot?
“They have not figured out what is wrong. I don’t think that there is anything necessarily wrong. It’s just not healing as quickly as we would like it to. More surgery has not been discussed at this point, and I’m praying that it won’t ever be discussed. But at this point, it’s still painful. I guess you could blame it on scar tissue or damage tissue and maybe that this is just the best that it’s going to get. But we’re hoping that it’s going to get better, and I guess that’s really all we know right now.”
Do you regret having surgery?
“I don’t regret having surgery. I wish I was never faced with the decision to have to have surgery, but I think that surgery was the right thing to do. Had I not had surgery, I could have just had surgery last week. The bone was definitely breaking. It was weak and it definitely needed some structural help.”
What was the tipping point in you making this decision?
“Just weighing the options and looking at the situation in
front of us, we just felt like this is the best decision for me as a player. At the end of the day, I still have to do what’s best for me. I
almost felt like if I were to continue to play on it at this point that I wouldn't be
100 percent and to be out there not at 100 percent I would
feel like I was cheating my teammates, and that would be even worse of a feeling.”
Are there any certain movements more painful than others?
“Definitely my lateral movements. That was one of things that was a concern for me. Running straight ahead was okay, and on the offensive end, I felt like I could get through some of the plays without making as sharp of cuts as I normally would. But on the defensive end, there’s just no getting around having to move laterally. That was definitely what was causing me the most pain.”
This team has now lost three players. How do you see your teammates rallying through this?
“I think is an excellent opportunity to show what type of character this
Carolina basketball team has. There is no doubt that every
national championship team has had to overcome some type obstacle. There
are a lot of things that happen throughout the year with injuries and
everything is not going to go your way and every championship team has been
able to find a way to get through those things and to persevere.
"If
anything, this is the most perfect situation for this team right now to be
able to look at something so negative, but this is a great opportunity for
everyone to step up and for this team to pull together and for this team to
work even harder. It will be even better when this team gets to where they
want to be and reaches their goals even through all of this.”