EAST LANSING — Tom Izzo stopped short of saying Jeremy Fears Jr. is done for the rest of the season.

However, the Michigan State basketball coach Monday gave a glimpse of what is ahead in the coming months as his freshman recovers from a December gunshot wound to his left leg.

“There’s some guys that are quick healers and some guys that aren’t quick healers,” Izzo said during his weekly news conference. “He is a tremendously quick healer. … Does that mean he’s gonna play this year? No. But does that mean that he’s really getting better and will have a spring and summer to get well on and improve his skills? Yes.”

Fears was shot Dec. 23 in his hometown of Joliet, Illinois, while on Christmas break, a little more than 24 hours after MSU’s win over Stony Brook in which he had a career-high 10 assists in the 99-55 win.

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There remains no timeline for Fears to return to full basketball activities. Izzo said the 6-foot-2, 190-pound point guard has resumed doing some on-court shooting continues to exercise on an underwater treadmill. He has been walking without crutches since January.

Izzo said MSU plans to seek a redshirt season for Fears, which might require an NCAA petition after he played in the Spartans’ first 12 games this season. Fears averaged 3.5 points, 3.3 assists and 1.9 rebounds over with 10 steals 15.3 minutes per game before being shot.

Paperwork for a potential medical redshirt cannot be submitted until after a season is complete. According to the NCAA, a basketball player must meet three conditions to be granted hardship waiver for “an incapacity resulting from an injury or illness.” They cannot have participated in more than 30% of their team’s games, the injury/illness must be season-ending and verified, and the injury/illness must have occurred “prior to the completion of the first half of the playing season.”

“We’re gonna try to do that,” Izzo said about a potential redshirt for Fears, who turns 19 on April 19. “I don’t know if he’ll ever use it or need it. I don’t know what’s gonna happen in the future. … His circumstances are more than deserving of that, and yet I’m definitely not politicking right now. I’m just saying I think we’re in a time when there are no rules, but the only time the rules seem to come up is when the rules probably aren’t fair. I mean, here’s a case where a kid deserves to be looked at. And we’ll do that.”

Izzo called Fears “a unique kid” who has remained active on the bench and during MSU’s timeouts and halftime meetings, as well as during the week at practice.

“He’s always got something to say that’s right on,” Izzo said. “And I appreciate that about him.”

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Senior point guard A.J. Hoggard said Fears’ recovery has made a positive impact on his teammates as well.

“Just the way he came back, he wasn’t really walking the same a little bit. So to see him light jogging and being able to jump up and down a little bit, it’s definitely big,” Hoggard said. “And it shows that he’s on his way back. He’s gonna be really healthy and ready to go, probably within another month or so. So it’s definitely big to see him get back to doing what he loves to do and just kind of being more a part of the team and not just sitting on the sidelines as much as he was.”

MSU (17-9, 9-6 Big Ten) is 10-4 since Fears went out. The Spartans, on a three-game win streak that pulled them into a three-way tie for third place in the league with Wisconsin and Northwestern, host Iowa at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Their lone regular-season game with the Hawkeyes (15-11, 7-8) will not be televised but will be streamed on Peacock.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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