Before the ISU men’s basketball team’s first exhibition game of the season on Sunday, Melvin Ejim spoke with the media about his left hyper-extended knee he suffered on Wednesday in practice. 

Ejim said that in the injury he didn’t get tangled with any other body, he just came down awkwardly on his left knee.

“The ball bounced backwards; I tried to grab it, and as I came down, my leg was straightened out, and it just kind of hyper-extended, and it kind of hit a little bit,” Ejim said. “I think that it’s not going to take as long — hopefully it doesn’t take as long.

“It’d be the best if it took a couple weeks and I could play right away, but we’ve still got to be smart and it’s something that if I do play on it and it’s not properly healed it could potentially be something that would hurt me down the line.”

Ejim didn’t say he or the team doctors had set a target date. According to the four to six week diagnosis, four weeks from the injury would put his return date near the beginning of December, possibly before the Cy-Hawk game on Dec. 13 in Ames against Iowa. 

“I’m just trying to listen to what the [doctor] says,” Ejim said. “For me it’s the sooner the better, right? Just got to play it and see how it goes and hopefully it’s sooner rather than later.”