Multiple sources are reporting that Jeremy Hazell has broken the bone just below the thumb on his left (non shooting) hand. The normal recovery time for an injury like this is typically 4-6 weeks.

Mike Vorkunov was the first to report the story, with Zagoria and Prunty following suit. Kevin Willard had this to say regarding the injury:

"Jeremy has been playing on such a high level to start the season and we feel bad for this to happen to him. This however, is an excellent opportunity for his teammates to step up."

-Kevin Willard, from ZagsBlog

This should come as a surprise to everyone considering Hazell dropped 27 points last night in a victory over Alabama in the Paradise Jam. As far as I know, there were no reports of him being seriously injured or being in any kind of discomfort during the game. The best news is probably that it is on his non shooting hand. I'll be following this to see if there are anymore updates, but for now it looks like the Pirates will have to brave the remainder of their non conference schedule without Hazey in the starting rotation.

According to WebMD, "with proper treatment and follow-up, most scaphoid fractures will heal over time. Without treatment, and sometimes with treatment, healing can be slow and difficult because parts of the scaphoid bone do not have a good blood supply. If your scaphoid bone does not heal well, you can have long-term pain, stiffness, or arthritis in your wrist." Obviously, after that description, Hazell can't really play through it. By the looks of it, he's just going to have to sit it out and let it heal on its own.

This will also make it difficult for Hazell to eclipse Terry Dehere's all time scoring mark which, before this injury, he was on pace to break.