Bill Edwards has once again found misery on the injury trail.

The redshirt junior forward for Miami University’s men’s basketball team missed most of last season with a wrist injury and now will sit out the remainder of the 2012-13 campaign with a left knee injury.

MU made the announcement Wednesday that Edwards, a Middletown High School graduate, suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the first three minutes of last Saturday’s game against James Madison and will undergo surgery Monday.

“I feel bad for Bill because obviously this young man has had some bad luck, but he seems to be in good spirits,” RedHawks coach John Cooper said. “Hopefully he’ll have six to eight months of recovery time, and we’ll certainly do everything we can to support him. We want to keep him involved as much as possible with the group and give him some energy and inspiration.”

The 6-foot-6, 245-pound Edwards played in seven games last year after transferring from Penn State and sitting out the 2010-11 season. This year, he started four of Miami’s five games, averaging 9.2 points and 3.0 rebounds while shooting 52.9 percent from 3-point range.

Cooper said Edwards didn’t appear to get hit on the play that ended his season last weekend.

“I think he just planted and the knee just sort of buckled,” Cooper said. “Sometimes you can’t tell exactly what happened. Maybe his body was going one way and his knee got caught going the other.”

Edwards, who was not made available for interviews Wednesday, won’t be an easy guy to replace. But MU does have some depth and went on to beat James Madison 76-58 without him.

“He had a very, very good skill package,” Cooper said. “You don’t just replace guys when you lose them. What you try to do is overcome those losses. We’re going to have to have some guys step up big and get the numbers he was giving us.

“Things like this serve as a reminder to us that you can’t take the game for granted. It can be taken away from you in the blink of an eye.”

Miami senior co-captain Vince Legarza said Edwards will be missed.

“It’s a great opportunity for guys to step up and pick up where Bill left off,” Legarza said. “I’ve had two surgeries and had to miss significant time, and it sucks. An injury like that you never want to happen to anyone, but Bill’s going to be all right. He’s a great guy with great people around him. We’re all going to be there for him.”

The RedHawks (3-2) travel to Fort Wayne, Ind., on Saturday and will face IPFW at 7 p.m.