Alijah Arenas injury update: USC star suffers torn meniscus, will potentially miss 2025-2026 season per report

USC five-star freshman guard Alijah Arenas has suffered a tear of the meniscus, NBA insider Chris Haynes reported Wednesday night. The injury puts Arenas in jeopardy of missing the entire 2025-26 college basketball season.

Arenas is On3’s No. 7 ranked player in the Class of 2025 and is the son of former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas. He was one of 12 new Trojans this season on Eric Musselman‘s roster and was a pivotal piece to USC‘s No. 5 ranked recruiting class.

BREAKING: USC’s prized recruit Alijah Arenas has suffered a tear of the meniscus, putting him in jeopardy of missing the entire 2025-26 college basketball season, league sources tell me. pic.twitter.com/c4F76sVqtv

— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) July 23, 2025

The meniscus tear comes as another heartbreaking blow to Arenas and his family, months after he nearly lost his life in a car accident.

According to High School on SI’s Tarek Fattal, Arenas was driving a Tesla Cybertruck and “inhaled a lot of smoke” after the vehicle caught on fire following the crash. The smoke inhalation led to Arenas being put into an induced coma. He however “suffered no major bodily injuries,” Fattal reported.

He committed to in-state USC earlier this year on Jan. 30. He reclassified up from the 2026 cycle prior to committing.

A prolific scorer, Arenas has continued to earn high praise, averaging over 30 points per game during his senior season for Chatsworth. He was one of two incoming freshmen in USC’s 2025 recruiting class (guard Jerry Easter).

“This season the 6-foot-5 guard is averaging 31.8 points on 54.8 percent shooting for Chatsworth (CA) High,” On3’s Jamie Shaw previously wrote of the five-star. “Arenas is coming off a strong showing at the USA Basketball Junior National Team mini-camp and proved his scoring chops in the Adidas 3SSB Circuit 17U Finale averaging 21.7 points on 48.0 percent shooting from three for the week. Arenas debuted in the 2025 On3 150 at No. 10 when he reclassified in January.”

Arenas has earned multiple honors throughout his high school career, including being named a McDonald’s All-American. In December, he broke the single-game scoring record at The Classic at Damien event, scoring 56 points at the high-profile California tournament.

His journey has taken another slight detour, but hopefully Arenas should be able to bounce back with a speedy recovery and embark on his professional career. A meniscus tear usually takes 3-6 months to recover from, putting Arenas at potentially February as a return date.

Although he could be good to go by February, a return in March would be unlikely.

On3’s Hunter Shelton contributed to this report.