The talented and athletic 7-foot freshman has decided to come out of the medical redshirt year and will take the court tomorrow night for the first time since suffering a broken wrist back in November.
North Carolina spokesman Steve
Kirschner confirmed the news to FOXSports.com.
``It's 99 percent that he'll play tomorrow night," North
Carolina spokesman Steve Kirschner told
FOXSports.com. ``Tyler wants to play and Roy just wants to see him practice one
more time today before making a final decision."
Zeller played just two games this season, including scoring 18 points in the season-opener against Penn, before suffering a broken wrist. He has had seven practices and is in the 13th week of a recovering period that was expected to be 12-16 weeks.
``He would really like to help this team," Williams said in a news conference on Tuesday afternoon. ``He would really like to play. He thinks that it would really help him in the long term, and hopefully, he would help this team this year."
``So, he and I discussed it yesterday and I told him that was the decision we would go with, unless he went home and slept on it and came back and said he's changed his mind."
InsideCarolina.com reported that Zeller told a school official today that he has not had a change of heart and plans to play on Wednesday.
This will certainly bolster what has become a short bench for the Tar Heels after the recent news that Marcus Ginyard won't return due to a foot injury and also the season-ending suspension to reserve William Graves.