Jitoboh's recovery coming into focus year after eye injury

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Jason Jitoboh won’t step foot onto a basketball court without his glasses. And he doesn’t even need them to see.

The darkened lenses merely provide extra protection for what eyesight Jitoboh has remaining.

Florida’s 6-foot-11 center took a finger to his left eye at Tennessee last January and spent the better part of a year trying to get right. He’s had four surgeries already and might have a fifth following the season.

So when the Gators (12-9, 5-3 Southeastern Conference) host the second-ranked Volunteers (18-3, 7-1) on Wednesday night, Jitoboh will be focused on finding some closure on a trying and unexpected journey that started with a routine rebounding effort during a midweek game in Knoxville and continues a little more than 12 months later.

“I’ve had this game marked for a while,” Jitoboh said.

For good reason. Jitoboh left his last outing against the Vols bloodied and unable to see in one eye. He had surgery the next morning to repair a ruptured muscle that had prevented any eye movement. He had several more operations to repair a detached retina and optic nerve damage.

Adding to disorientation and discomfort, doctors dropped protective oil into his healing eye and ordered him to lay face down for roughly 20 hours a day for three months. He would spend 50 minutes with his head in a massage pillow and then get a 10-minute break during which he’d try to cram in all his normal activities.

“I would’ve gone crazy if I did that all day,” Jitoboh said. “So I tried to find loopholes. I’d stand up and look down. It was just finding different ways to heal and also live life.”

With his parents living in Abuja, Nigeria, and unable to get to Gainesville on short notice, Jitoboh relied on head...