STORY & PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON
Ashley Corral is tended to after suffering a sprain at USA Basketball
One of the nation's top point guards, Ashley Corral, will have ankle surgery for the second time in six months and will be sidelined until December.
Corral, ranked as the 17th overall prospect in 2008 by HoopGurlz.com, is scheduled to have surgery to tighten ligaments and clean out floating cartilage in her left ankle on Wednesday, according to her father, Art.
Ashley Corral
The surgery will be conducted in Vancouver, Wash., Corral's hometown. Her rehabilitation is expected to last four months, meaning Corral will return to action at Prairie High School in December.
Corral had arthroscopic surgery on her right ankle on March 7. Corral's orthopedic surgeon found ligaments he estimated were torn since the ninth grade. Corral reported this summer that her right ankle felt pain free for the first time in a long time.
"Her surgeon doesn't believe the surgery (on the left ankle) will be as complex as the one on her right ankle," Art Corral said. "Both her mom and I thought that she should have the procedure not only to have two healthy, pain-free ankles, but also so she would not have to have the procedure in college and possibly miss a season."
Corral presently is in Berkeley, Calif., making an unofficial visit at Cal. She was in Los Angeles, making unofficials at UCLA and USC, last week. She plans to make official visits to Cal, Notre Dame, USC and possibly two other schools this fall before making a commitment in time to sign a National Letter of Intent during the early signing period.
The 5-foot-8 point guard returned to action about a month earlier than projected to participate in USA Basketball's Youth Development Festival in June. There, she demonstrated the best command on the floor of any of the elite point guards in attendance, as well as unleashed a very much-improved, long-distance jump shot. Corral suffered a sprain to her left ankle on the last day of competition; an MRI exam revealed that she also suffered a deep bone bruise.
Corral played in a tournament in Oregon City the next weekend, however, and participated in the Nike Skills Academy in Beaverton, Ore., the week after that. She also played on the summer club circuit on a team coached by her Prairie High School coach, Al Aldridge.
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Glenn Nelson is the publisher of HoopGurlz.com. He also founded and coached the Dragons and Northwest HoopGurlz select girl's basketball teams. Glenn previously was the editor-in-chief at Scout.com and a longtime, national-award-winning basketball columnist and writer for The Seattle Times. His work also has appeared in several books and national magazines. He is co-author of "Rising Stars: The Ten Best Players in the NBA" (Rosen Publishing, 2002). For more on Glenn's World, click here [0]. He can be reached at glenn@hoopgurlz.com [1].