The St. John’s basketball team lost another freshman for the remainder of the season after the program announced on Tuesday afternoon that Casper Pohto will undergo hip surgery.
The procedure will fix a chronic hip injury which will sideline him six to eight months.
Pohto was a late addition to the Red Storm roster in June after spending time during his high school career at St. Benedict’s Prep (N.J.) and Sunrise Christian Academy (Kan.) while also competing for the Swedish national team.
The 6-foot-3 guard played in five games this season, logging a season-high nine minutes in the Red Storm’s win over Bucknell in which he scored two points. Most recently, he played two minutes in St. John’s win over Ole Miss on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
Casper Pohto is the second St. John’s freshman to suffer a season ending injury after Imran Suljanovic dislocated his patella prior to the start of the season.
Four-star guard Kelvin Odih and walk-on Fotis Konstantinidis have been non-factors for the Red Storm this season.
On Monday, St. John’s (5-3) moved up one spot to No. 22 in the AP Top 25 Poll this week after defeating the Rebels. Kentucky, the only remaining marquee non-conference opponent still on the Red Storm schedule, dropped out of the rankings after its disastrous start to the season.
The Red Storm will only play its second game in two weeks on Saturday (12:00 p.m. ET, TNT) when hosting Iona (7-3) at Madison Square Garden before it rolls into Big East play on Tuesday (7:00 p.m. ET, Peacock) against DePaul (6-3) prior to its showdown with the Wildcats.