Virginia Cavaliers forward Braxton Key has missed the last three games to injury.

Key was injured in the waning moments of UVA’s 48-45 win over Arizona State in the Championship Game of the Air Force Reserve Tip-Off Tournament.

Following the game, Key had surgery on his wrist and was ruled out indefinitely.

At the time of the injury, it was described as similar to the one that Kihei Clark suffered last season. Despite having surgery, UVA’s exam break provided enough time for Clark to heal and not miss a contest following the surgery.

The same recovery process was applied for Key as it was for Clark. No playing until the stitches come out.

On Monday night on his coach’s show with Dave Koehn, UVA head coach Tony Bennett said that Key had his stitches removed earlier in the day on Monday.”

“They took the stitches out today,” started Bennett. “And they streamlined the cast, similar to what [Kihei Clark] and now it’s, ‘hey, can you get comfortable and what things can you do’ and then we have time with practice and we’ll just see how it goes.

“I’m hopeful. We have such good health care for our athletes. All the doctors here are amazing and the support. So we feel great that way and everything is looking good and now, it’s a matter of getting comfortable and playing.”

UVA, after defeating the North Carolina Tar Heels on Sunday, 56-47, doesn’t have another game until December 18, when the Wahoos host Stony Brook.

While Bennett didn’t say that Key would absolutely return to the lineup in that contest, using Kihei Clark’s timetable as a measure, it appears to be heading that.

“I’m not sure how long [the soft cast] has to be on. We’ll see, but of course, it will limit him in some ways, but I said ‘can you rebound, can you defend?’, we’ll start with that and we’ll build from there.

“Kihei played. Kihei played as a point guard with that, so at least we have track record with that. So, we’ve seen that, and hopefully, Braxton can get more comfortable with it.”

During the three games that Key has missed, UVA is 2-1 with wins over Maine and UNC. The lone defeat, and only loss on the season, came on the road at Purdue, where the ‘Hoos were defeated 69-40.

Key was averaging 10.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per game in the six games prior to the injury