BY BRIANA GORMAN

bgorman@heraldsun.com; 419-6668

CHAPEL HILL -- The injury bug continues to bite the ninth-ranked North Carolina men's basketball team.

Coach Roy Williams announced Friday that senior Marcus Ginyard will miss Sunday's ACC opener against Virginia Tech (7:45 p.m., Fox Sports) because of a right ankle sprain and that junior Will Graves and freshman Leslie McDonald also are questionable with injuries.

It will be the fourth straight game Ginyard, the Tar Heels' third-leading scorer and their Tar Heels' best defender, has missed since the injury during practice on Dec. 26 and the fifth game the fifth-year senior has missed this season.

Graves sprained his right ankle during a win over Albany on Dec. 30 and missed Monday's game at the College of Charleston, which is where McDonald hurt himself.

Williams said if the Tar Heels had played on Friday or today, neither Graves nor McDonald would have been available.

"But the extra day may give you a little more time so we'll just have to wait and see," Williams said.

Williams said the starting rotation probably would be similar to the one he used against Charleston -- Deon Thompson, Ed Davis, Larry Drew II, Dexter Strickland and David Wear -- although he's still debating between starting Wear or John Henson.

Williams said he was pleased with how McDonald played against the Cougars (11 points, four rebounds).

"If Leslie were healthy, I'd start Leslie; I don't mind saying that," Williams said. "Again, the better you play the more you get to play."

On the mend

On Sunday, Williams will be without a sling during a game for the first time in six weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder on Nov. 24.

Williams previously had complained it was difficult to sleep with the bulky sling and could be seen wincing on the sidelines after sudden movements during at least two games.

"The shoulder was a real pain in the shoulder, and it was hard to ever get comfortable," Williams said. "It feels much better now than it did, except when I'm trying to show by example to Ed Davis how I wanted him to dunk the ball [Thursday], and it hurt like crazy when I did that."

Proud grandparent

Williams became a grandparent for the first time on Jan. 1 when his son Scott and his wife, Katie, gave birth to a boy in Charlotte.

"I like people that are dependable that you can count on, and the boy's due date was January 1 and that's when he was born, January 1," Williams said. "I'm on my way to the hospital and I got to the hospital and 30 minutes later, the boy's born. ... He's a neat little rascal."