Michigan basketball's Mitch McGary, Jon Horford dealing with injuries

With the start of the 2012-13 college basketball season edging closer, Michigan coach John Beilein announced on Thursday that forwards Mitch McGary and Jon Horford are both nursing injuries, as reported by Nick Baumgartner of MLive.com.

McGary, a 6'10 freshman standout expected to see significant minutes in Beilein's frontcourt rotation, continues to deal with foot problems, despite being relatively close to full health.

"McGary is still working on something with his ankle and foot," Beilein said at Thursday's Big Ten Media Day. "He's almost full-go (in practice), we're trying to build up some strength in one of his legs that he had had some atrophy from a prior injury."

Forced to the sideline last season due to a foot injury of his own, Horford, a redshirt sophomore, twisted his knee at the end of Wednesday's practice and will continue to be evaluated. Though Beilein did not have an update on his lanky shot-blocker, the veteran coach appeared quite worried about the possibility of yet another serious injury.

"We are concerned about Jon," Beilein said. "I'll get a report later on today."

Projected to finish No. 2 in the official Big Ten media poll earlier this week, the Wolverines will open up their 2012-13 regular season schedule on Nov. 12 against UTEP in the NIT Season Tip-Off. While elite guard play from both Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. should be enough to keep Beilein's squad ahead on the scoreboard most nights, continued injury problems from key forwards like McGary could be devastating