Seth Trimble injury update: Hubert Davis reveals how UNC star is mentally handling being sidelined

North Carolina senior Seth Trimble is expected to miss 6-8 weeks following successful surgery on a broken bone in his left forearm. He suffered the injury during a team workout over the weekend.

It’s going to be a long road to recovery, but Trimble will still be able to come back this season and eyes a return during ACC play. Despite the setback from seemingly out of nowhere, Tar Heels head coach Hubert Davis commended Trimble for how he’s handled the injury in the days since.

“He’s done a really god job handling this, and he understands that he’s going to be back” Davis said after defeating Radford 89-74 on Tuesday. “He’s going to be back soon.”

Davis retold a story that he relayed to Trimble after his injury, He said that he knows how hard it mentally for a player to suffer an abrupt injury during the season.

“Going back to reacting and responding — I told him a personal story that in my second year that I was in a really good spot with the (New York) Knicks,” Davis said. “I just happened to run into Jon Koncak from the Atlanta Hawks and I broke my hand.

“I was out six weeks, and I thought it was the worst thing that ever happened to me. The timing was horrible and in those six weeks, I worked on my left hand and when I got back, my left was better than my right. It actually made me a better player and allowed me to take a step back and see something I wouldn’t have seen had I been playing.”

Davis will hope his personal anecdote is used as motivation for Trimble, who was off to a strong start through two games during his fourth year playing for the Tar Heels. In Trimble’s last time on the floor, he scored 17 points, eight rebounds and three assists. The 6-foot-3 guard was averaging 14.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists before going down with the injury.

“Use this as a positive,” Davis said he told Trimble when discussing the injury. “Even though it’s unfortunate.”

North Carolina will have to move forward without its senior guard. They’ve already had to take on Radford without his services, and that will continue this Friday against NC Central. Tip-off is set for 9 p.m. ET on Friday night, and will air live on the ACC Network.