FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas will be without its head coach for multiple games, as Eric Musselman had successful shoulder surgery Thursday morning, the UA announced.
Assistant coach Keith Smart, who has been a head coach in the NBA, will serve as the interim coach for at least two games, beginning with Saturday's matchup at No. 12 LSU.
The Razorbacks are scheduled to play home games against South Carolina on Tuesday and Texas A&M on Saturday next week, followed by a road trip to Ole Miss on Jan. 26.
Musselman has been dealing with a full tear of the supraspinatus tendon and partial tears to the infraspinatus and subscapularis tendons in his left shoulder since Trey Wade fell on him during a drill at practice early last month.
Originally the plan was for him to go the rehab route and avoid surgery, but the pain never lessened.
"It's feeling worse," Musselman told reporters earlier this week. "Now it's sticking and getting a click to it. Not good. Not good sleeping on the road."
Now about six weeks removed from the injury, Musselman was left no choice but to have surgery, according to Dr. Wesley K. Cox, an orthopedic surgeon with UAMS Health.
"The goal was to use daily physical therapy and treatment as well as a steroid injection to delay the surgery as many weeks as we could, none of which have offered any significant improvement," Dr. Cox said in a statement released by the UA. "At this time, surgery to repair the tears was necessary due to the amount of pain and instability he was experiencing and to mitigate the risk for significant complications in the future.
"Coach Musselman is expected to do very well and ultimately make a full recovery.”