Nick Chubb appears to have suffered another serious setback.
The Cleveland Browns’ four-time Pro Bowl running back 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, the Pittsburgh Steelers confirmed. coach Kevin Stefanski after the game.
Chubb was ejected and quickly ruled out for the remainder of the contest after receiving a hit from safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. Chubb immediately grabbed his knee after the 5-yard run and remained on the ground following the play – a replay of which ESPN officials declined to show given the gruesome nature of the injury – and players from both teams gathered around him before he was expelled.
Steelers fans chanted Chubb’s name as the ball carrier was taken off the field.
Chubb had 64 yards on 10 carries before going out.
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Latest Nick Chubb Injury Update
Stefanski did not provide information after the game regarding the exact nature of the injury, but said he expects it to force Chubb to miss the remainder of the season.
“Obviously, Nick has a very significant knee injury. … You feel compassion for this person. He’s a great football player, as we know, but he’s an even better person, so we will support him every step of the way.”
Chubb was taken to a local hospital but returned to Cleveland after being released, Stefanski said.
Browns star defensive end Myles Garrett was candid in his assessment of what Chubb’s loss meant for the team.
“It hurts,” Garrett said in his postgame press conference. “He’s our brother. He’s my brother. … It’s a big blow for the whole team, and we don’t want his injury to be in vain. We have to keep going.”
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 on the first offensive play of the Bulldogs’ game against the University of Tennessee. The diagnosis: a knee dislocation, three ligament tears (posterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral and lateral collateral) and cartilage lesions.
“I remember how I felt when that happened,” Chubb said in a 2016 ESPN article about the injury. “I had a tingling sensation in my leg. My body was moving forward and my leg was moving backward. I knew something was wrong.”
However, after a lengthy rehabilitation, Chubb returned the following season and accounted for 1,130 yards and five touchdowns. He beat those numbers as a senior, rushing 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 of the Browns in the 2018 NFL Draft.
“Malcolm Gladwell wrote about outliers,” former Georgia sports medicine director Ron Courson told ESPN in 2016. “Nick is an outlier. He’s genetically gifted. He has a tremendous work ethic and he’s as mentally strong as anyone I’ve ever seen… I’m not surprised he’s back.
Chubb also sprained the MCL in his right knee in 2020 and missed four games while on injured reserve.
Reactions to Nick Chubb’s injury
As soon as Chubb fell, active and former NFL players expressed their support for the Browns running back by writing messages on X, formerly Twitter.
Browns options at running back after Nick Chubb injury
After Chubb’s injury, backup Jerome Ford stepped in to lead Stefanski’s ground attack. Ford, who was a fifth-round pick of Cincinnati last year, had 106 rushing yards on 16 carries, with most of his production coming on a 69-yard run in which he reversed the field to a big gain. He also had a 3-yard touchdown run and finished with three receptions for 25 yards.
Pierre Strong Jr. also scored a goal-line touchdown and had 1 yard on two carries.
