Notre Dame Commit Torii Hunter Jr Injured

Notre Dame wide receiver commitment Torii Hunter Jr suffered a reported broken femur during practice on Tuesday for this weekend’s US Army All American bowl – the first major injury in this year’s Army all-star game.

Hunter, one of Notre Dame’s top playmakers in this year’s class, suffered the injury during practice earlier today and was reportedly in a considerable amount of pain and needed to be carted off the field according to ESPN’s Damon Sayles.

Torii Hunter Jr. now being carted off. Good kid. Here's to a speedy recovery. #Prosper #Irish #ArmyBowl

— Damon Sayles (@DamonSayles) January 1, 2013

Sayles was also the first to report that the injury was a broken femur citing Hunter’s father, MLB outfielder Torii Hunter, Sr as his source.

Per @toriihunter48, his son, #Irish commit @THunterJr has a broken femur. Gotta hate it for him, especially w/ baseball season coming up.

— Damon Sayles (@DamonSayles) January 1, 2013

Sayles also had a quote from the elder Hunter stating that his son will bounce back from the injury.

.@toriihunter48, about his son @THunterJr: "He'll bounce back. I know he will." #ND #Irish #ArmyBowl

— Damon Sayles (@DamonSayles) January 1, 2013

Obviously any injury requiring a player to be carted off the field is a serious one, but the fact that the injury was a broken femur as opposed to say a torn ligament is the silver lining here.  Hunter is a gifted athlete with great moves in the open field and a torn ACL or anything similar could have really stunted his development due to the time required to fully recover.  Think back to James Aldridge pre and post injury when he suffered a torn ACL in high school and never quite recovered his change of direction and open field running.

Broken femurs are pretty rare football injuries though.  Former Minnesota Viking linebacker EJ Henderson suffered a broken femur in early December 2009 during a game, however, and was able to return to the field for the season opener in 2010.  Henderson though, essentially set the standard for recovery from the injury in terms of getting back on the field with the speed in which he was able to return.

Hunter committed to Notre Dame back in September with offers on the table from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and West Virginia as the fourth wide receiver to join this year’s class along with Corey Robinson, James Onwualu, and William Fuller.

Hopefully for Hunter’s sake, as well as Notre Dame’s, he is able to return with the same level of success that Henderson was able to because he is a key member of this year’s class at receiver.  Hunter brings a similar skillset to that of TJ Jones to the table – a skillset that Jones has been able to translate into a very productive season as he continues to mature and develop in Brian Kelly’s offense.