No. 11 Michigan State junior center Nick Ward is out indefinitely with a hairline fracture in his left hand, the school announced.
Ward suffered the injury late in the first half of the Spartans' win over Ohio State on Sunday afternoon.
A release from Michigan State said Ward will be "reevaluated on a weekly basis and it is hoped he will return before the end of the season."
Ward was averaging 15.1 points and 6.7 rebounds while shooting 60.4 percent from the field this season, becoming a go-to option in the paint for Michigan State. He had notched four double-doubles and hit the 20-point mark on nine occasions this season.
This is the second significant injury for Tom Izzo and Michigan State in the last few weeks. Junior guard Joshua Langford is out for the season with a left foot injury. Langford missed eight games with the injury in January, and then Izzo announced in late January that Langford was going to miss the rest of the campaign.
The Spartans are 10-3 without Langford.
They managed to pull out the win over Ohio State on Sunday after Ward exited, with a dominant second-half performance. Michigan State finished the game on a 20-2 run and held the Buckeyes to just 13 points after halftime.
Without Ward, Xavier Tillman saw an increased role off the bench, and he's likely to move into the starting lineup. Freshman Thomas Kithier also saw double-figure minutes as a reserve for just the third time this season.
Michigan State (21-5, 12-3 in the Big Ten) hosts Rutgers on Wednesday before heading to Ann Arbor for a top-10 matchup at Michigan.
