De’Aaron Fox injury update as Kentucky prepares for Vanderbilt

Will De’Aaron Fox play Tuesday when Kentucky hosts Vanderbilt?

It’s looking like another game-time call after the freshman guard missed Saturday’s win over Florida. On Monday, head coach John Calipari didn’t provide much of an update on his star point guard while refusing to give a definitive answer as to whether Fox plays or not.

"Not sure," Cal said of Fox’s status vs Vandy. "We’ll see. I have no idea. This morning he was in the meeting, but I didn’t ask him, so we’ll see."

After Saturday’s game, Calipari admitted that Fox would have been around 70% healthy had he played. Calipari also said he wanted to see how well his team could do against a great opponent without Fox, which they certainly did well at.

Fox has also been recovering from an ankle injury suffered on Jan. 21 against South Carolina. That, along with a recent illness, has led to Fox having just 31 assists vs 21 turnovers over his last nine games, an average of just 3.4 assists vs 2.3 turnovers per contest.

He is also shooting just 39% over his last eight games after shooting 61% in the prior six contests. Fox’s struggles have been a big reason why Kentucky looked like a shell of itself in February, including a stretch in which they lost three of four games.

Even if Fox plays Tuesday night, we shouldn’t expect him to be close to what he was earlier in the season when he was healthy. He also should probably come off the bench, assuming that seniors Dominique Hawkins, Mychal Mulder and Derek Willis start on Senior Night.

It’s hard to see the Texas native missing Saturday’s game at Texas A&M, a game that will come down to the wire based on how much Kentucky has struggled on the road.