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A Duke spokesperson confirmed to Inside Lacrosse that defenseman Casey Carroll sustained a serious knee injury and underwent surgery.
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Duke men’s lacrosse head coach John Danowski announced Thursday that redshirt senior Casey Carroll will miss the 2013 season after undergoing surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
Carroll, a defenseman, returned to the Blue Devils for a fifth year of eligibility after serving five years as an Army Ranger. He previously played for Duke from 2004-07, earning first team All-America honors his senior season.
The body count is adding up in Division I and the regular season hasn't even officially started yet. This week has been especially notable in terms of casualties with Syracuse announcing on Tuesday that Nicky Galasso would miss the season with a broken foot and Duke's announcement today that Carroll, a two-time All-American, would have to watch the Devils from the sideline.
I don't know what other way to put this: This sucks. Carroll spent five years as an Army Ranger, came back to Duke to pursue a master's degree in business, and was set to help anchor a Blue Devils defense that had the look of an absolute monster. It could have been one of the best stories in lacrosse this year, and now its potential ending is incomplete. It just plain sucks.
Duke will now enter 2013 -- the Devils open their season on February 9th against a dangerous Denver team loaded with offensive weapons, especially through the midfield -- without one of its presumed starting close defenseman. Chris Hipps and Henry Lobb remain, arguably one of the better close defense tandems in the country, as well as Harvard transfer Dan DiMaria and a host of poles with potential -- Luke Duprey (who saw time behind C.J. Costabile last season), Jamie Ikeda and Chris Coady (freshmen with enviable rankings in Inside Lacrosse's recruiting matrices), Billy Connors (who earned two starts in 2012), Brian Dailey (a long-stick midfielder that played in 19 games last season), and a host of others from a roster that currently features 11 defensemen in total. Duke's defense should be fine given the depth currently residing on the roster, but John Danowski now has more decisions to make other than trying to figure out his midfield rotation.
Regardless, none of those players on the roster that are available are Casey Carroll, which sucks.