The Clemson Tigers were in the midst of a hard-fought battle in the Gator Bowl against the Kentucky Wildcats when disaster struck. Star running back Will Shipley took a kick return around the edge of the Kentucky special teams unit before getting pushed out of bounds and front-flipping into the sidelines.
When he bounced back up, Shipley tweaked his knee awkwardly and came up, grabbing his leg.
Will Shipley Injury Update: RB Suffers Knee Injury vs. Kentucky
Shipley and the Clemson offense had just begun to hit their stride when he suffered a leg injury. He had scooted 60 yards on the kick return where he suffered his injury, pushing his total yards from scrimmage to 132 in the Gator Bowl.
The final results from Shipley’s injury didn’t look too good either.
THE FLOODGATES HAVE OPENED pic.twitter.com/88aKOcnYzi
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) December 29, 2023
Shipley stayed on the ground for a few moments before needing help to his feet.
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He couldn’t put any weight on his leg and was very visibly agitated, yelling what appeared like expletives at nobody in particular.
He was eventually taken to the locker room on a cart.
UPDATE: Following the action, head coach Dabo Swinney confirmed a leg injury for Shipley, but gave a potentially promising update.
“Again, you don’t want to say anything other than all I can say is they felt like it was best-case scenario, just on an observation,” Swinney told to the media following the game.
Swinney mentioned that the team would do an MRI over the weekend or Monday at the latest. Still, despite having the ‘worst-case scenario’ come from an MRI, Swinney remained confident in Shipley’s prognosis for the future.
“But initially they said looks like best-case scenario, but we’ll see what the MRI says.”
Shipley Injury Clouds His NFL Draft Decision
With Shipley injured in what could have been the final Clemson game of his career, the word ahead of the Gator Bowl was that he was considering returning to school instead of turning to the NFL Draft next April.
The injury sustained against Kentucky now clouds that decision. If there is anything seriously structurally damaged within his knee, Shipley may have his decision made for him.
With January closing in and the pre-draft process so heavily contingent upon physical workouts, Shipley’s expected unavailability to work out could push him back to the Clemson sidelines for his senior season.
Time will tell what the severity of Shipley’s injury is and how it will affect his decision-making process around his future.
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