MSU point guard Tum Tum Nairn now '120 percent' healthy

WASHINGTON – Tum Tum Nairn made a declaration at Big Ten media day Thursday.

The foot injuries that prevented the Michigan State point guard from playing at full capacity is now “120%” after having offseason surgery to correct the plantar fasciitis in his right foot.

“To be honest, mentally is where it killed me the most,” Nairn said. “I have a really, really high pain tolerance. My team doctors have said to me they’ve never seen anybody play through that injury.”

Nairn started MSU’s first 18 games last season, averaging 4.1 points, 4.5 assists and 1.4 rebounds in 24.1 minutes a night up to that point. The Spartans were 16-2 when the pain finally caught up to the 5-foot-10 guard in a January loss to Iowa.

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That was it. Nairn was shut down for the next seven games.

“For me, God was giving me so much strength to play through it,” Nairn said. “But I blew myself up mentally because every day, I had to come into practice and fight through it for practice. Then I had to fight through this for games. On top of it, I’m not working on my game. I’m not doing anything but practicing, playing and walking on a boot every single day. That dragged me mentally.”

Following the injury, he came off the bench and averaged just 8.9 minutes in MSU’s final 10 contests as Denzel Valentine took over at the point. Nairn scored just 0.6 points with 0.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists in those games.

In March, shortly after MSU’s loss to Middle Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Nairn underwent surgery in which doctors used ultrasound to discover a tear in his heal and “went in there and touched it up,” he said.

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It took eight weeks for Nairn to get back on the court. He hasn’t felt pain since. And he has zero regret for playing through the pain.

“I’m gonna just tell you the truth – I played that year for my teammates, just for Matt (Costello) and Zel and Bryn (Forbes),” Nairn said. “I don’t look at it as I hurt myself doing it. I’m not gonna ever say that, because I was doing it for people I care about.”

Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@chrissolari.

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