Notre Dame point guard Markus Burton out for extended time with foot/ankle injury; exact return date TBD

Notre Dame has aspirations for meaningful basketball in March for the first time in third-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry‘s tenure. But to get there, the Irish will have to survive a significant stretch without their best player.

Star point guard Markus Burton is out for an extended period of time with a left foot/ankle injury, a source confirmed to Blue & Gold. The extent of Burton’s injury, which he suffered on Friday night during the first half of Notre Dame’s 87-85 overtime win at TCU, was first reported by Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune.

Noie reported that Burton is out for “several weeks,” which could be anywhere from within two months to the rest of the 2025-26 season (which would give him a medical redshirt). His exact timetable is to be determined.

Burton’s injury comes at a devastating time, because he was playing the best basketball of his career and the Irish had real momentum exiting the difficult part of non-conference play. He led Notre Dame to a massive victory with 18 points and 10 assists against Missouri on Dec. 2, and he had 6 points and 5 assists in the early minutes of Friday night’s game at TCU.

This is the second time in as many seasons Burton went down with a scary-looking injury. Last year, a right knee injury was feared to be season-ending but wound up sidelining him for seven games.

Burton went up for a layup on Friday night at TCU as the shot clock wound down with the Irish trailing 25-21. He went high off the glass and scored, but he came down hard on his left leg. The Mishawaka native and Penn High School graduate tried to get up and run back on defense, but he quickly realized that would be impossible.

Burton went down, grabbing his left leg. He appeared to be in considerable pain. Trainers helped him off the court and directly to the locker room, and while they did, he could not put any weight on that left leg. He was later seen on the bench with crutches and a boot, cheering on his teammates throughout their overtime win.

With Burton out for extended time, freshman guard Jalen Haralson and junior guard Braeden Shrewsberry will have to pick up the slack on offense. Haralson averages 13.9 points and 2.7 assists per game, while Shrewsberry is third on the team with 10.5 PPG — mostly from beyond the arc, where he shoots 44.3 percent.

Junior guard Logan Imes and sophomore guard Sir Mohammed will likely also see their minutes increase as secondary ball handlers with Burton out. The Irish could also choose to run parts of their offense through seventh-year forward Carson Towt, who averages 2.0 assists per game.

After leading the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring as a sophomore with 21.3 points per game, Burton has scored 18.5 points per game as a junior for the 6-3 Irish. He also leads the team in assists with 3.7 and steals with 1.6 and, despite his 6-foot stature, is third in rebounds with 2.8.

Burton notched his first career double-double last week during a much-needed 76-71 win over Missouri. He created sophomore guard Cole Certa‘s game-winning shot with 18 seconds left, passing out of a trap and watching Certa’s three go through the basket.

“He creates so much havoc when he drives,” Shrewsberry said. “Just making the right play every time. Ten assists, 2 turnovers is big-time for him. … I thought he was really aggressive, driving to score. But I thought when people came over to help, he made the right play each time.”

Haralson was Notre Dame’s star in the second half against TCU with Burton out. He scored 20 points, dished 9 assists and hit a turnaround jump shot with 2 seconds left in regulation to tie the game and send it to OT. As a result, the Irish received AP Poll votes on Monday for the first time in Shrewsberry’s tenure.

Haralson will need to be the star for much longer than just one night, if not the rest of his freshman year.