Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who is expected to be drafted in April, has a torn ACL — which his agent says actually occurred before the season but wasn’t officially diagnosed until this week.
Agent Casey Muir told multiple reporters on Friday that Rourke, who suffered a torn ACL in his right knee in 2022, felt the injury again in the summer of 2024 but played all year through it. Now that the injury has been confirmed, he will have surgery to repair the ACL next week.
Rourke was a second-team All-Big Ten quarterback and led Indiana to a spot in the College Football Playoff. He is viewed as a mid- to late-round prospect in the 2025 NFL draft.
It’s rare but not unheard of for players to play through a torn ACL. Deshaun Watson played through a torn ACL during his freshman year at Clemson. Rourke played the 2024 season with a brace on his right knee but otherwise gave no indication that the knee was injured.
The Indianapolis Star reports that Rourke did not tell Indiana’s medical staff that he felt he had re-injured his knee, so no new examination or imaging was conducted at any time during the season. The reporters who learned of the ACL tear from Rourke’s agent have largely portrayed it as proof of Rourke’s toughness, but the story could also be viewed as one of Rourke failing to do what every player should do: promptly alert the medical staff to any issue he’s having. It’s also worth asking whether Indiana’s medical staff, which knew he had previously torn his right ACL, should have been regularly checking Rourke’s right knee regardless of whether Rourke was complaining of any issues.
NFL teams will surely want to take a close look at Rourke’s knee before drafting him. Any player who has torn and then re-torn his ACL is going to have medical red flags on teams’ draft boards. Whether that player was able to play through the torn ACL or not.
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