Explosive Cal Poly forward Josh Martin done for season with stress fracture in foot

Cal Poly men’s basketball coach Joe Callero confirmed Tuesday night that junior forward Josh Martin will miss the remainder of the season because of a stress fracture in his foot.

Callero announced the season-ending injury in a tweet, saying, “Unfortunately (junior) forward Josh Martin will need to (redshirt) and miss the rest of the season due to stress fracture in his foot.”

Cal Poly can apply for Martin to receive a medical hardship waiver, which can be granted or denied by the NCAA. Since Martin played in fewer than 30 percent of the Mustangs’ 30 regular season games, he seems to have a strong case to regain the year of eligibility.

Expectations were high coming into this season for the 6-foot-8, 212-pound Martin, who emerged as one of the Mustangs’ most exciting and athletic players last season.

Martin continued to build on that success this November, scoring 16 points or more in the first three games of the season. He turned in a 17-point, 21-rebound performance against Pepperdine in the season opener, the highest single-game rebounding total by a Cal Poly player since 2011.

After graduating from Seattle’s Bothell High in 2014, Martin attended Minnesota and appeared in seven games for the Golden Gophers. He transferred to Cal Poly mid-season and saw his first action as a Mustang last December during a nonconference game against USC.

Martin went on to appear in 21 games, starting eight, and he averaged 6.1 points and 3.9 rebounds in 16 minutes per contest.

Losing Martin is a significant blow to Cal Poly’s front court. Coupled with senior forward Zach Gordon’s injury last Saturday against Texas A&M Corpus-Christi, the Mustangs will have to rely on junior Luke Meikle and redshirt freshman Hank Hollingsworth moving forward.

Callero told reporters Saturday that Gordon went through concussion protocol and he could be out for up to seven days.

Cal Poly (5-4) will be back in action at 4 p.m. Saturday at Fresno State (5-3), the first in a six-game road stint leading up to the start of Big West Conference play.

This story was originally published December 7, 2016 at 12:14 PM with the headline "Explosive Cal Poly forward Josh Martin done for season with stress fracture in foot."