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Northwestern CB Keith Watkins II to miss season with knee injury

Northwestern cornerback Keith Watkins II will miss the season with a knee injury, the Wildcats announced Tuesday. Watkins’ injury came on a non-contact play during practice on Thursday.

“It kind of swelled up a little bit, so I didn’t know what was going on,” Watkins said Tuesday. “The next morning it swelled up pretty bad, I went and talked to the trainers and got an MRI done. The results came back that I had, pretty much, a bad knee on my left knee.”

Watkins said he’ll undergo surgery next week.

“The bad news is he’s not going to be able to play. The good news is he’s going to have an opportunity to get in the weight room and get stronger,” said head coach Pat Fitzgerald. “I’m really disappointed for him. He’s worked so hard. But we’ve got great depth at that position, excited about the guys that now get the opportunity from somebody else’s tough situation. That’s football.

A junior out of Cincinnati, Watkins appeared in 12 games last season and posted 41 tackles, tied for second most among all cornerbacks.

Watkins has used his redshirt year, meaning he’ll have to apply for a medical redshirt to return for a fourth year on the field in 2018.