Highly-touted Clemson freshman will need surgery

Clemson freshman defensive end Logan Rudolph may be able to play through pain this season, but at some point he is going to need another surgery on his shoulder, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney announced last week.

Rudolph missed most of his senior season at Northwestern after suffering a torn labrum. He had surgery and went through rehab but it did not heal 100 percent.

“We’re going to have to harness that shoulder,” Swinney said. “At some point he’s going to have to have surgery again on that shoulder to fix it. He’s got a little piece in there that’s got to be repaired.”

Rudolph was rated as a four-star recruit and the No. 3 player in the state of South Carolina for the class of 2017 by the 247Sports Composite rankings.

His brother, Mason, is the quarterback at Oklahoma State.

He chose the Tigers over offers from Alabama, Florida State, Florida, Michigan, South Carolina and others.

Rudolph may be counted on to contribute at defensive end this season for Clemson. If so he will have surgery after the season. If he redshirts he will go ahead and have surgery during the season and begin recovering.

“He probably could play, but if we end up making the decision to play him he’ll probably miss spring,” Swinney said. “We don’t really have to make that decision right now. We’ll just see what happens in camp. He could play. He’s just going to have to get used to wearing the shoulder harness.”

This story was originally published August 14, 2017 at 10:40 AM with the headline "Highly-touted Clemson freshman will need surgery."