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Some awful news just broke for Fighting Illini football. Via his Twitter account, freshman running back Dre Brown has suffered another torn ACL and will miss the 2016 season. Brown was the victim of a similar injury to his other knee last Spring (almost a year ago today, actually).
Breaks my heart to announce this. Don't know why it happened to me... Going to try and keep my head up. Pray for me. pic.twitter.com/4777m4DydB
— Dre Brown (@DreBrown27) April 20, 2016
Brown, a former three-star recruit, was expected to be competing for playing time behind sophomore Ke'Shawn Vaughn this season.
#illini have three healthy scholarship running backs. Good thing Kendrick Foster came back. Should be active on transfer market.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWernerScout) April 20, 2016
Of course, star wide receiver Mikey Dudek also suffered a second consecutive season-ending knee injury about two weeks ago. The two incidents aren't necessarily related, but it's hard to ignore the somewhat alarming number of injuries that Illinois has suffered in recent offseasons.
This news is just horrible, though. Get well soon, Dre. We'll all be pulling for you.