Coach Klieman Not Speculating on Star Player’s Injury

The team captain missed 11 games last season after shoulder surgery

FARGO, ND — NDSU football is 2-and-0 after beating #7 Eastern Washington over the weekend.

The Bison didn’t have one of their star defensive players in the contest.

Senior linebacker Nick DeLuca suffered an undisclosed knee injury last week in practice that the team only described as a “non-ACL” injury.

The team captain missed 11 games last season after shoulder surgery.

He did play in the 2016 matchup against Eastern Washington and came away with 15 total tackles and a pick-six.

His absence didn’t seem to be felt too much as the Eagles were limited to just 204 yards of offense on Saturday, but having another body on defense, especially one as experienced as DeLuca, will be crucial down the stretch.

Head coach Chris Klieman isn’t ready to say how serious DeLuca’s knee injury is though.

“He had a procedure today. I don’t know how it went yet and what they all did,” Coach Klieman said. “I don’t have an answer for you other than he had a procedure. I’ll learn more and we probably won’t know anything if not this week still…next week. I don’t really know other than there was a procedure done.”

The good news for the Bison is they have an open week this weekend, which gives all of their players a little more time to recover.