On Thursday, Keith Hornsby said he suffered a “nice tear in his groin” and remains unsure, yet optimistic, of the possibility of returning to finish his senior season.
After beginning by saying “I’m still feeling pretty bad,” Hornsby was asked if he had a set date for an unlikely, yet possible, return.
“I can’t really say. I just don’t know,” Hornsby said. “It’s purely how this heals. All I can say is in the moment. Nobody really knows. It’s a nice tear in the groin. It needs some time to heal. We’ll see, I hope it feels better soon.”
Hornsby said he was playing through pain throughout the entire season and one simple squat led to the sudden sidelining.
The healing process from his preseason surgery weakened his groin, and the Williamsburg, Virginia native said this injury was expected to reoccur eventually. 
“I don’t think the previous injury healed all the way,” Hornsby said. “I’ve been playing with that area injured all year. That’s why it’s not surprising that this hiccup occurred in that area. You could see how weak it was. Plain, and simply, I hurt it by squatting down and picking up a ball. That just goes to show you that that area was not in a good state. But it’s not my abdominal. My abdominal is fine, it’s just the groin. … I would feel [pain] and just play. I got used to it, actually.”
Without him in the starting lineup, Hornsby will not be able to be a part of LSU’s desperation play period with only three regular season games remaining.
But, from the sidelines, Hornsby said that urgency in winning is the Tigers task at hand.
“You wouldn’t be able to tell from our play,” Hornsby said of LSU having to play desperately. “We need to have some urgency about us. If we had any heart, if we cared about this team and season as a whole we have to play [desperate]. Hopefully, we will. Everybody knows what we’re capable of, playing to the best of our abilities. We just have to do it.”
You can reach Christian Boutwell on Twitter @CBoutwell_TDR