Notre Dame End Jordan Botelho Suffers An Injury, Will Be Out For Four Months

Notre Dame suffered a number of crushing defensive line injuries in 2024, and now another early injury will set back the line in 2025. Irish Breakdown has confirmed that veteran defensive end Jordan Botelho has suffered a torn pectoral muscle and will miss at least four months.

Botelho has had some tough injury luck over the last year. He started the 2024 season off on a very strong note and was playing the best consistent ball of his career. In the third game of the season he injured his knee in the Notre Dame 66-7 victory over Purdue. That injury ended Botelho's season, and two weeks later the Irish also lost Boubacar Traore to a season-ending knee injury.

There were questions about how healthy Botelho would be early in the season as he worked back from the previous knee injury, and now he's likely going to miss almost half of the regular season. This injury is certainly a setback, but the only glimmer of sunshine about today's news is that Botelho will get more time for his knee to heal. If Botelho is able to come back in October it would give the Irish a nice boost to the defensive line as they look to make another run to the national championship.

With Botelho out and Traore also coming back from his September knee injury the edge position could be a bit thin early in the season. Veterans Josh Burnham and Junior Tuihalamaka, as well as sophomore Bryce Young will certainly get plenty of opportunities to handle the position. Notre Dame is also hopeful that sophomore Loghan Thomas can give more reps this season. Thomas is undersized but he's an extremely explosive athlete. Traore is expected to be ready by the opener, but how quickly he is full speed and able to play a normal amount of reps remains a question mark.

Matt Freeman first reported the Botelho injury. Botelho has 77 career tackles, 16 career tackles for loss and 11.5 career sacks heading into the 2025 season. According to Pro Football Focus, Botelho also has 49 career pressures.