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It appears that Nick Chubb has suffered another serious setback.
The four-time Pro Bowl running back from the Cleveland Browns suffered what is expected to be a season-ending knee injury during the second quarter of Monday night’s 26-22 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, coach Kevin Stefanski confirmed after the game.
Chubb was ejected and was quickly ruled out for the remainder of the contest after taking a hit from safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. Chubb immediately caught his knee after a 5-yard run and remained on the ground after the play — which ESPN officials declined to show a replay of due to the gruesome nature of the injury — and players from both teams gathered around him before he exited.
Steelers fans chanted Chubb’s name as the ball carrier was escorted off the field.
Chubb had 64 yards on 10 carries before exiting.
Here’s the latest we know about the injury:
Latest update on Nick Chubb’s injury
Stefanski did not provide information after the game regarding the exact nature of the injury, but he said he expected it to force Chubb to miss the rest of the season.
“Obviously Nick had a pretty significant knee injury. … You feel for this guy. He’s a great football player, as we know, but he’s an even better person, so we’ll support him every step of the way.”
Stefanski said Chubb was taken to a local hospital but returned to Cleveland after his release.
Browns star defensive end Myles Garrett was candid in his assessment of what losing Chubb means for the team.
“It (expletive) hurts,” Garrett said in his post-game press conference. “This is our brother. This is my brother… It is a blow to the entire team, and we do not want his injury to be in vain. We have to move forward.”
Nick Chubb injury history
Monday night’s injury came nearly eight years after Chubb suffered a gruesome injury to the same left knee as a sophomore at the University of Georgia.
On October 10, 2015, Chubb was injured in the Bulldogs’ first offensive game against the University of Tennessee. Diagnosis: Knee dislocation, tear of three ligaments (posterior, medial, and lateral cruciate ligaments) and cartilage damage.
“I remember how I felt when it happened,” Chubb said. ESPN story of 2016 About injury. “There was a tingling feeling in my legs. My body was moving forward, and my legs were moving back. I knew something was wrong.”
After extensive rehabilitation, Chubb returned the following season and rushed for 1,130 yards and five touchdowns. He bested those numbers as a senior, running for 1,345 yards and 15 touchdowns as Georgia won the Southeastern Conference but fell to Alabama in overtime in the national championship game, before becoming a second-round pick for the Browns in the NFL Draft For the year 2018.
“Malcolm Gladwell wrote about outliers,” Ron Corson, former director of sports medicine at Georgia, told ESPN in 2016. “Nick is an outlier. He’s genetically gifted. He has a tremendous work ethic, and he’s as mentally tough as anyone I’ve ever seen.” . “I’m not surprised he’s back.”
Chubb also sprained his right knee in 2020 and missed four games while on injured reserve.
Nick Chubb injury reactions
Once Chubb went down, active and former NFL players expressed their support for the Browns’ return while writing messages on X, formerly Twitter.
Browns options at running back after Nick Chubb injury
After Chubb was injured, backup Jerome Ford stepped in as leader of Stefanski’s ground-heavy attack. Ford, a fifth-round pick out of Cincinnati last year, racked up 106 rushing yards on 16 carries, with the bulk of his production coming on a 69-yard run as he reversed field for big gains. He also hit a 3-yard touchdown catch and finished with three receptions for 25 yards.
Pierre Strong Jr. also ran for a touchdown at the goal line and had one yard on two carries.