Pitt senior guard Jermaine Dixon, the only returning starter from last season, injured his right foot in summer basketball league play and could be out until mid-September.

Preliminary tests indicate that Dixon has a fractured fifth metatarsal, the large bone on the outside of the foot connecting to the little toe. He will have more tests next week to determine whether he needs surgery. If so, he would be out for eight weeks.

Pitt doctors are familiar with the injury. It is the same one that forced Levance Fields to miss part of the 2007-08 season.

The team doctors will stress to Dixon to take it slowly. Fields missed seven weeks of the season and came back to play in the postseason in '08. Later in the summer, he fractured the bone again and had to have bone graft surgery that kept him out for 10 weeks in late summer and early fall of last year before the season started. Fields did not miss any games, but his conditioning level was affected and the training staff kept a close eye on his practice schedule.

The good news for Dixon is that even with a scheduled rehabilitation he is still expected to be ready for the start of preseason practice in mid-October.

Dixon, who averaged 8.4 points per game last season, could not be reached for comment. Until this week, he had played in every game of the Pittsburgh Basketball Club Pro-Am for the previous two weeks. The local summer league features Pitt, Duquesne and Robert Morris players.

Dixon complained of foot soreness early in the week and an X-ray revealed the fracture. He is expected to have another X-ray next week at which time doctors will determine his treatment schedule.