Florida junior Dan Werner revealed Monday that he’s been playing the past few weeks with an avulsion fracture in his right middle finger and a jammed left thumb.
Werner said he injured the finger going for a rebound in Florida’s Southeastern Conference opener Jan. 11 against Ole Miss.
Since the injury, Werner is shooting 35.4 percent (11-31) from the floor and 33.3 percent (4-12) from 3-point range.
Asked whether the injury was affecting his shooting stroke, Werner responded: “I don’t want to make any excuses so I would say, no, they both feel fine. They get hit and stuff and sore and stuff but they are both getting better.”
Werner also said he took his late mistake against South Carolina as hard as Chandler Parsons did for missing the front end of a one-and-one free throw.
“I was beating myself up for it,” Werner said. “You never want something like that to happen. I should have never been in that situation. I should have been way farther back. That’s my fault. Obviously, I’ve learned.”
Werner said he was caught flat-footed for a second and let South Carolina guard Zam Fredrick get behind him.
“At first I thought they were going to try to call a timeout and then after Nick (Calathes) told me they didn’t have any timeouts left,” Werner said. “I wasn’t really sure. You know with over three seconds left you try to call a timeout and set up a play. I never expected that at all.”
