Notre Dame's Bonzie Colson (foot) expected to be out 8 weeks

Notre DameAll-American forward Bonzie Colson suffered a left foot fracture and is expected to miss eight weeks, the school announced Tuesday.

Colson, who suffered the injury in practice, will undergo surgery Thursday.

"We are all feeling for Bonzie right now, who was performing as well as any player in the country," coach Mike Brey said in a release. "We need to embrace this challenge. This program has lost key guys before and we figured out a way to earn an NCAA bid."

Colson earned third-team All-American honors last season and was putting up career-high numbers across the board as a senior. He was averaging 21.4 points and 10.4 rebounds this season, adding 2.4 blocks and 2.0 steals.

In Saturday's win over Georgia Tech, Colson finished with 22 points and 17 rebounds. He has tallied nine double-doubles this season, including a 37-point, 11-rebound effort against Dartmouth in December.

Notre Dame (11-3, 1-0 ACC) started the season 6-0, including a win over Wichita State, but have lost three of eight since. The Fighting Irish host NC State on Wednesday, followed by road trips to Syracuse and Georgia Tech.

Without Colson, Brey will have to lean more heavily on his backcourt of Matt Farrell (16.4 PPG) and TJ Gibbs (14.1 PPG). Up front, expect John Mooney (3.5 PPG), Elijah Burns (1.5 PPG) and Austin Torres (1.0 PPG) to see an increase in minutes.