Penn State forward Bill Edwards will miss four to six weeks after suffering a partial tear of his right medial collateral ligament (MCL) during practice Wed-nesday morning.

The 6-foot-6, 235 pound freshman was injured during a five-on-five game near the end of the practice, Assis-tant Director of ommunications Brian Siegrist said.

"Drew Jones was blocking out Steve Kirkpatrick, and he just fell back into Bill's knee, which twisted the wrong way," Siegrist said. "It sounds like he's going to be in a brace for a couple weeks, and it will probably be four to six weeks before he can return to full strength to play."

Siegrist said the injury looked a lot worse on the floor and the coaches were relieved Wednesday afternoon when the diagnosis was handed down. Though the tear will keep Edwards off the floor, it was not serious enough to warrant surgery Siegrist said, adding it is an injury that can heal with rest.

While the freshman will be unable to do intense physical activity for a few weeks, the training staff would like Edwards to still do some conditioning work. Though Siegrist said Edwards would definitely be in a brace during rehab, he wasn't sure what precautions the team would take once the forward returns to action.

"[The trainers] were somewhat relieved it was 'just an MCL.' It's an injury but it's something you can recover from fairly quickly," Siegrist said. "They feel like it's something that they're just going to keep him off his feet for a while, try to keep his condition up while doing that, and he'll be able to bounce back."

Edwards impressed the coaches during early season practices, and Siegrist said they expected Edwards to be in the top-eight rotation and contribute quickly.