Tom Izzo previews Thursday's return to action for Michigan State
Michigan State is finally back in practice and staring at a return to game action Thursday, Tom Izzo confirmed during his press conference Tuesday afternoon.
After an outbreak of COVID-19 forced the Spartans to postpone three conference games, Izzo said that Michigan State is now ready to go for Thursday’s game against Rutgers. Though things can obviously change in an instant, Izzo expects his team to have about 11-12 players available and ready to play. Thursday’s game is set to be played at Rutgers.
While Izzo did confirm the team returned to practice Monday, he also indicated that an assistant coach and forward Gabe Brown also tested positive late last week. They will be among those unavailable for Thursday.
Fortunately, Izzo did indicate that Joshua Langford and Steven Izzo have completed their heart tests and resumed conditioning, and that duo – along with Mady Sissoko – will be part of the group available for Thursday.
Here are the highlights from Izzo’s press conference as the Spartans prepare to return to action:
Tom Izzo presser beginning. Says Gabe Brown has also tested positive for COVID. That happened late last week. And an assistant coach positive test yesterday.
But MSU practiced Monday, full go, for the first time in a while.
— Graham Couch (@Graham_Couch) January 26, 2021
Dane Fife confirms he is the MSU assistant who tested positive for COVID but is experiencing only mild symptoms thus far. https://t.co/QZcmNfRZsf
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) January 26, 2021
Izzo says they're good to go for Thursday at Rutgers.
— Graham Couch (@Graham_Couch) January 26, 2021
Izzo says he expects to have 11 or 12 players available Thursday. Joshua Langford and Steven Izzo, Izzo says, should be available Thursday. I'm not sure he's correct on that with Langford.
— Graham Couch (@Graham_Couch) January 26, 2021
The reason Joshua Langford will be available for Thursday's game at Rutgers is that the date of symptoms beginning – not the positive test date – begins a player's 17-day clock. The player has to report the symptoms at the time. They can't do it retroactively.
— Graham Couch (@Graham_Couch) January 26, 2021
Izzo says they probably could have played that game at Virginia and it might have been "disastrous," given what Virginia went through after that.
— Graham Couch (@Graham_Couch) January 26, 2021
Izzo: "We're gonna show up. We're gonna have a team … I think the guys are excited about the opportunity to play."
— Matt Charboneau (@mattcharboneau) January 26, 2021
One positive in terms of MSU getting back to playing games is they are, as Izzo said, "running out of people who haven't had it."
— Matt Charboneau (@mattcharboneau) January 26, 2021
Izzo says his son and Langford have had their heart tests and beginning workout phase.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) January 26, 2021
One player we know who will be available Thursday (among the recent positive tests) is Mady Sissoko. Whether he will play is up in the air, Izzo said. Will be a matter of being in game shape or not
— Matt Charboneau (@mattcharboneau) January 26, 2021
Thursday’s game is set to tipoff at 7 pm EST on FS1. The Spartans might be up against it with a limited squad this week, but the pressure is on to keep up in the B1G. As things currently stand, Michigan State is 2-4 in the conference and coming off a big blown lead in the last game against Purdue.
