Kentucky Football: Josh Clemons Suffers Another Injury

As many of you may know by now, word has come that Kentucky sophomore running back Josh Clemons has once again injured his leg. What we don't know at this point is what kind of injury he has suffered, other than that it is reported to be "significant." The injury is to be evaluated by MRI on Monday.

Kyle tucker of the Courier-Journal has a report out that the injury is to Clemons' Achilles tendon:

University of Kentucky running back Josh Clemons sustained an Achilles tendon injury during a workout Friday, a UK spokesman confirmed Friday night.

Ugh. If Clemons ruptured his Achilles, it will be the end of this season for him. Although a young, healthy player like Clemons can recover from an Achilles tendon rupture and return to play football, the recovery time is a minimum of six months, and usually takes nine months to a year for full recovery and rehabilitation.

Assuming the worst case, Kentucky is slightly fortunate, if that's the right word, that they are quite deep at the running back position. Clemons' injury does cut into that depth if there are any more significant injuries, however.

Again, assuming the worst case, it is pretty likely that Clemons will recover and be available next year, but at the cost of a year of college eligibility.

It is also possible that there is a tear to the calf muscle instead of the Achilles, which would be the best-case outcome — the two have similar symptoms, but are vastly different in severity. If that happened, then Clemons could be back this year sometime, depending on the severity of the tear. A grade 2 strain takes about two months to heal and rehab, and a grade 3 about four months.