It hasn’t been good news for Notre Dame football on the injury front this week, as we found out that center Ashton Craig is out for the year and there is still no timetable for Charles Jagusah after he underwent another procedure recently.
The hits kept coming for the Irish, as on Thursday we found out that defensive lineman Gabriel Rubio has been ruled out of the game this weekend against USC with an elbow injury according to The Athletic’s Pete Sampson. While he isn’t a starter, the senior has been getting a good amount of playing time having 13 tackles and 0.5 sacks on the year.
Notre Dame will now turn to a trio of players which include Jared Dawson, Cole Mullins and Elijah Hughes (who is facing his former team in the Trojans). The good news is that the majority of these three have played this fall, as Dawson has been very solid and Hughes is working on a two-game sack streak.
Bryce Young could move from the outside as well, giving the Irish coach staff plenty of options on how they’ll need to replace the snaps that Rubio has been getting. It’s unclear how long he will be out, but this one has to sting as Rubio missed time last year with an injury, which allowed him to return for another season. Hopefully it’s a minor setback and we see him on the field sooner rather than later.
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Breaking: Notre Dame will be without major contributor as it faces USC this weekend
Reporting by Michael Chen , Fighting Irish Wire / Fighting Irish Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
