Minnesota’s men’s basketball forward Kris Humphries participated in practice Wednesday and said he hopes to play Saturday against Penn State.

Humphries, speaking to the media for the first time since straining a tendon in his right ankle, took part in team drills and was able to run.

“We obviously want him every day, but we would like to have him Saturday and would really like to have him next Thursday (for the Big Ten Tournament),” Gophers coach Dan Monson said. “We will see how everything goes.”

Humphries didn’t play in a 66-62 loss at Iowa on Saturday.

“It feels good,” the freshman said. “So far, I haven’t had the type of pain that I had on it (last week).”

Humphries injured his ankle Feb. 18 at Indiana and said it got worse following the Gophers’ loss to Ohio State on Feb. 25.

Last Thursday, the Chaska, Minn., native had a magnetic resonance imaging exam, which revealed the injury.

“It was getting to the type of feeling where it was a sharp pain, so I was really concerned,” Humphries said.

Humphries has been receiving treatment several times per day and has been icing the ankle on his own.

The 6-foot-9-inch forward is the Big Ten’s leading scorer at 20.7 points per game. He also leads the league in rebounding at 9.6 caroms per contest.

u Freshman Kerry Wooldridge, who is redshirting this year, still hasn’t returned to practice since suffering an illness last week.