Karim Rtail injury update: John Calipari explains Arkansas wing's absence from summer workouts

Arkansas fans are excited to see what Lebanese forward Karim Rtail can bring to John Calipari’s squad during the 2025-26 season. Playing professionally in Lithuania last year, Rtail could be one of the more interesting pieces to Calipari’s lineup — if he stays healthy.

The Arkansas forward is currently out with injury. Calipari revealed the extent of it while meeting with the media earlier this week.

“His back has been bothering him. So he’s got eight 20-20s before he can start practicing, and we’ll run 20-20s when we come back in September,” Calipari said. “So he’ll have a lot of catching up to do but he’ll be fine.”

The 20-20s Calipari is referring to are 20 sets of suicides in 20 minutes. That sounds tough for anybody let alone an athlete returning from injury. However, Rtail is expected to perform at a high level for Arkansas this season and with professional experience under his belt, will likely take the conditioning assignment in stride.

Rtail committed to Calipari’s squad back in March during the tail end of last season. He’s a part of a Razorbacks group that makes up the No. 4 overall recruiting class in the 2026 cycle as of this report.

The group is headlined by a pair of five star recruits, guards Darius Acuff and Meleek Thomas. Joining them is four-star small forward Isaiah Sealy to round out the three-player high school class.

The 6 foot 9, 20-year-old previously played professional basketball in Lithuania. This past season playing for Neptūnas-Akvaservis in the NBL, he averaged 17.1 minutes for his club, scoring 8.3 points per game on a 31.4 percent 3-point average. His best performance of this past season saw him score 22 points in 26 minutes on Nov. 2.

During the 2024-25 season, Arkansas finished the regular season with a 19-12 record. The Razorbacks went on to split its two games in Nashville at the SEC Tournament, but was able to stay within the bubble and qualify for the NCAA Tournament. They were one of 14 teams from the SEC to do so, a record for a single conference.

Arkansas will look to build on Calipari’s first season in Fayetteville, which culminated in a run to the Sweet 16. With non-conference matchups against Duke, Texas Tech, Houston and Louisville already on the docket for the upcoming season, Arkansas will have more than a few opportunities to prove themselves against worthy competition early on.