Indiana Football's Mikail Kamara Has Battled 'Lingering' Shoulder Injury

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Over an hour and a half before No. 2 Indiana football's 31-7 victory over Wisconsin on Saturday, redshirt senior edge defender Mikail Kamara left the locker room and jogged to the Northeast corner of Memorial Stadium.

Kamara started his typical pre-game warmup routine, showing no glaring signs of wear and tear. But after eight snaps, the mask came off.

The reigning first-team All-Big Ten selection lasted only one drive Saturday. He watched Wisconsin's final nine offensive possessions from the sideline without his helmet.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said postgame Kamara, who made three tackles in limited action Saturday, has been playing through a shoulder injury.

"Mikail Kamara has been dealing with kind of a shoulder nerve stinger issue, which is pretty common for a football player," Cignetti said. "Those things tend to show up a lot more this time of year, a culmination of all the banging. We have seven, eight guys in that same boat.

"But Kamara's been a lingering issue, and he's another guy that needs rest and needs to get away."

Rest has arrived for Indiana, which went 6-0 after its last bye week and now gets a week off before ending the regular season with a road game against Purdue on Nov. 28.

Cignetti added the bye week will be "huge" for both the players and coaches, who earned hard-fought road wins over Oregon, Maryland and Penn State to go along with home victories against Michigan State, UCLA and Wisconsin during the season-defining stretch.

"It will be great to enter an off-week now and get the players some rest," Cignetti said. "The coaches too, really, the assistant coaches. I may even adjust what I normally do. We don't do much on off weeks, just stay sharp. But we need some rest. We've got to get some guys back.

"Got a lot of guys out there playing that are banged up, and we've got to get healed up as good as possible."

Indiana played without preseason All-American receiver Elijah Sarratt and starting left guard Drew Evans on Saturday. Right tackle Kahlil Benson missed one snap due to a lower-body injury before hobbling back onto the field, and he's appeared limp several times over the past three weeks, though he's kept playing.

The Hoosiers have lost starting edge rusher Kellan Wyatt, complementary running back Lee Beebe Jr. and special teams ace Bryson Bonds to season-ending knee injuries.

Without Wyatt, more onus falls on Kamara to be disruptive. He made a significant impact in the Hoosiers' road wins against Maryland on Nov. 1 and Penn State on Nov. 18, combining for 13 total pressures, according to Pro Football Focus.

Kamara looked no worse for wear in those games, and he hid his pain before Saturday's contest. Eventually, the dam broke — but now, Kamara gets a week to rest, recover and regroup before the Hoosiers fight for the Old Oaken Bucket.

"I think it's good for our guys to not only rest physically but also rest mentally for a couple of days," Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza said postgame. "And then Tuesday or Wednesday, whenever we have practice, go back out and attack it and then get great preparation for Purdue."