OGDEN — Weber State basketball fans can all breathe a collective sigh of relief.

While practicing with the Ukrainian national team in preparation for the FIBA World Cup, Weber State junior forward Joel Bolomboy suffered an injury to his knee.

Everyone expected the worst, but it was discovered that he had a bone bruise, and will recover in a few weeks.

“We kind of held our breath, we thought it could be more serious,” said Weber State coach Randy Rahe. “We got him back here as soon as we could and got him examined.”

Coach Rahe heard the initial news of the injury from one of the assistant coaches of the team, who happens to be one of his friends.

“He text me right away and said it didn’t look good,” said Rahe. “It didn’t look good when he did it, and sometimes when you have that kind of injury where you hyperextend it real quick, obviously your biggest fear might be an ACL.”

With the recovery time from such an injury being six months, Bolomboy’s upcoming season seemed to be in jeopardy.

“We’re counting on him in a big way for a lot of different reasons, and he’s going to be a huge part of our team,” said Rahe. “Not just what he does on the court, but we expect him to provide more leadership with the loss of our seniors.”

Rahe went on to say that an MRI couldn’t be done immediately after the injury occurred due to swelling, and doctors in Ukraine speculated that there was less than a 50 percent chance that it was an ACL injury.

“We heard about five days later they did the MRI, and Coach Mike Fratello called right away and said, ‘We got good news, it is what it is, a bone bruise,’ but he’ll be fine,” Coach Rahe recalled. “Initially we were worried, obviously, and then to have him all the way over in the Ukraine when it happened…you feel better when your own people are looking at him.”

The second opinion from local doctors confirmed that it was a bone bruise, and not a torn ACL.

“He’s in the middle of rehab right now,” said Rahe. “(He’s) trying to get it better, and he’ll probably be rehabbing for another two-and-a-half, three weeks, then I think we’ll be able to get him out there.”

Rahe was sent the video clip of the injury, and described what he saw.

“He was just doing a one on zero close-out drill, by himself, nobody around him, and he was closing out, and his toe caught the floor and kind of hyperextended his knee back,” said Rahe. “It obviously didn’t look very good, but it wasn’t anything that you just cringe at, you’re just kind of like, ‘damn, how do you hyperextend that?’ So it was kind of a fluke deal to be honest with you.”

By the time the season opener at Utah State takes place on Nov. 14, Bolomboy should be back at full strength, as if nothing ever happened.

“We’re just thankful that it wasn’t worse than that,” said Rahe. “We’ll get him back and get him going and get him in the right direction.”