Creighton forward Justin Carter received some relatively good news Monday in learning that he will be out two to four weeks with a knee injury.

Carter said an MRI revealed that he suffered a slight tear to the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in Sunday's exhibition win over the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

While the prognosis of missing a month hardly is rosy, it did alleviate Carter's initial fears that he might be out for the season. The 6-foot-4 senior forward slipped on a wet spot as he attempted to make a move to the basket with about eight minutes to play. He crumpled to the floor and eventually had to be carried from the Qwest Center Omaha arena.

“The main thing is I don't need any surgery, and I can go straight to rehab tomorrow and start working on getting back,'' Carter said. “When it first happened, I'm thinking, ‘I'm out for the year.' But now I know that if I work hard, I can get back the same as I was.''

Carter is a key component in Creighton's plans this season after he led the Bluejays in rebounding (5.5 per game) and finished as the team's fourth-leading scorer (8.1 average) last season, his first in the program. He also is considered one of the team's leaders in setting the tone on and off the court.

Creighton has seven games scheduled in the first month of the season, beginning with Saturday's opener at No. 21 Dayton. The Bluejays have home games scheduled Nov. 17 against Florida A&M and Nov. 22 against Arkansas-Little Rock, then will play three games in the Old Spice Classic at Orlando, Fla., before a Dec. 6 home game against Nebraska.

Carter said his initial rehab will be designed to get some flexibility back into his left leg.

“They said I'll be on the treadmill, and I might be able to do a little running to keep my cardio up,'' he said. “Right now, there's not a lot of pain in the knee and there's not a lot of swelling.

“It's a little sore, but I guess you'd expect that the day after it happened.''

The Bluejays did not practice Monday. Today, coach Dana Altman will start the process of trying to piece together a front-line combination for Saturday's visit to Dayton.

In addition to Carter's injury, Creighton probably will be without 6-8 Chad Millard, who aggravated a foot injury in practice and did not suit up for the UNO game. Millard injured the foot six weeks ago, but had returned to limited practice activity last week.

The setback leaves Millard uncertain when he might return. “It's wait and see,'' Millard said in a text message.

Compounding the situation is the illness that forced Casey Harriman to miss the UNO game. Altman said Harriman might be suffering from the H1N1 flu.

The injuries and illness could leave Creighton heading to Dayton with junior center Kenny Lawson as its only experienced inside player. Other candidates for playing time at the forward and center spots are junior-college transfers Wayne Runnels and Darryl Ashford, true freshman Ethan Wragge and walk-on redshirt freshman Matt Dorwart.

“We're going to have to have some guys step up,'' said Runnels, who scored 25 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in Creighton's two exhibition games. “I'm definitely going to have to get some more boards.

“I think this is going to change all of our roles a little. We're all going to have to pull together, go get that extra board or make that extra box out. Justin's a great athlete, and it's tough what's happened to him. We just need to pull together until he gets back.''

Contact the writer:

679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com

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