Gophers star Dawson Garcia suffers foot injury during summer workouts

Dawson Garcia wants to be All-American, Big Ten POY

Gophers forward Dawson Garcia is back with Minnesota for his final season despite multiple bigger NIL offers from other schools.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - University of Minnesota men’s basketball forward Dawson Garcia suffered a left foot injury during summer workouts that required surgery and will miss four to five weeks, according to reports.

It’s not clear when the injury happened, but Garcia is the Gophers’ top returning player this season. He was an All-Big Ten pick last season after leading Minnesota with 17.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. The Savage native and former Prior Lake star decided to come back to the Gophers for his final season despite likely getting multiple NIL offers from other schools that were bigger than what Minnesota could give him.

According to Ryan James with Gopher Illustrated, the injury will not affect his playing status for the season. He had surgery on his left foot, and will spend the next month recovering. Garcia is expected to back to full basketball activities by early September, when the team reconvenes for the start of school.

Garcia talked during summer workouts about why it was so important for him to return to the Gophers for one last season.

"Very tough decision, you get things thrown at you all the time that are very tempting, but at the end of the day you’ve got to stay true to your roots," Garcia said.

No one is more thankful for his return than head coach Ben Johnson.

"Dawson had some major options, and I hope people understand that. He came back for all the right reasons," Johnson said.

Garcia, Parker Fox, Mike Mitchell Jr. and Kadyn Betts are the only players back from last year’s team that went 19-15 and won a game in the NIT. The Gophers have brought in seven players from the NCAA transfer portal, and incoming freshmen Isaac Asuma and Grayson Grove.