Indiana football: Tom Allen provides injury updates ahead of Illinois matchup

Indiana football is coming off their best win of the season with the the 20-14 victory over the Wisconsin Badgers. However, the win did not come without a price as multiple Hoosiers came away on the injured list on the offensive side of the ball.

On Monday, Tom Allen spoke with the media to give an update on the injuries of offensive linemen Kahlil Benson and wide receivers Cam Camper and Omar Cooper Jr. Starting with Benson and Cooper Jr., Indiana football head coach Tom Allen does not expect those two to be out for an extended period of time. Both players left the Wisconsin game early due to undisclosed injuries.

“Yeah, since those guys left the game, don’t know about either one of them at this point,” said Tom Allen. “We’ll do our availability report. Don’t expect any of them to be long-term situations.”

Wide receiver Cam Camper’s status is a lot more serious, however. Per Tom Allen, Cam Camper’s injury is season ending and he had a procedure done over the weekend. Camper has not played since the Rutgers’ game last month.

“But do want to announce that Cam Camper will not be returning this season,” Tom Allen added. “Had a procedure done over the weekend, and just to try and help him for his long-term, and excited about the procedure going well and getting him 100 percent healthy for the future, and be able to help them in that regard.”

“That’s definitely one that we wanted to make sure we were clear on with his status. If a player is out for the rest of the season, we would say that publicly, and then if not we use the availability report to be able to allow us to announce those injuries.”

Allen confirmed that the injury is related to Camper’s ACL tear in the 2022 season. Allen said the procedure was “a chance to really kind of get it cleaned up and help him have a really, really 100 percent clean future.”

This is a bog loss for the Indiana football program as Camper was arguably the best WR in the roster. This season, Camper had 17 catches for 285 yards and a touchdown.

“Obviously Cam’s a big loss,” offensive coordinator Rod Carey added on Monday, “but on the flip side, Cam is doing the exact right thing, and I told him that too. When he made that decision, I go, ‘Yeah, let’s go get this right.'”

Camper has one season of eligibility remaining.

See Also: Indiana Football In Review Ep. 9: What went right? What went wrong? And more takeaways