This isn’t the headline you want to see, especially around the holidays, but, if anyone is equipped for such a battle, it’s Casey O’Brien.
At the age of 13, O’Brien was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer. As his official Minnesota bio states, O’Brien “has beaten cancer four times (including bouts in high school and college)… after numerous rounds of chemotherapy and treatment to continue his career as a holder.”
Ultimately, O’Brien, whose father had worked for the university’s football department at one point, walked on at Minnesota and redshirted as a true freshman in 2017, then didn’t see the field the following season. Through six games this year, that had remained the case — until Week 8. In a romp over Rutgers that kept Minnesota unbeaten at 7-0, O’Brien held for not one but two point-after attempts, including one in which he looked like a veteran of dozens of games in flawlessly handling a bad snap.
Monday, however, O’Brien took to Twitter to reveal that "[e]arlier today I had my three-month scans and the doctors found a small spot in one of my lungs.”
“They are not sure what it is, but they want to remove it this week so they can test it,” the redshirt sophomore wrote of the impending biopsy, adding, “I am looking forward to returning to the field soon.”
Ready to go 1-0 in this surgery season! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. God will continue to take care of me. RTB. #5x pic.twitter.com/8eKHCx0ALo
— Casey O'Brien (@caseyob14) November 25, 2019
In addition to his initial appearance, O’Brien also held for kicks in the following weekend’s blowout of Maryland.
“I met with Casey earlier today and he shared the news with me, as he does after each scan. Casey is the strongest young man I have ever met, and I know he will recover from this as well,” head football coach P.J. Fleck said in a statement. “He has an entire team, community, state and all of college football supporting him and rowing the boat with him.”
This weekend, No. 10 Minnesota will play host to rival and 12th-ranked Wisconsin with more than Paul Bunyan’s Axe on the line as the winner will claim the Big Ten West and face Ohio State in the conference championship game the following weekend.