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BYU’s Colby Jorgensen undergoes emergency surgery for fractured neck

There’s rather scary injury news coming out of BYU involving one member of the Cougars football program.

The brother of sophomore Colby Jorgensen told the Provo Daily Herald in a phone interview that the linebacker was undergoing emergency surgery Tuesday night after being injured during practice earlier in the day. According to Austen Jorgensen, his brother sustained a fractured neck and a slipped disc in the practice incident, and was “pretty lucky he didn’t end up paralyzed.”

From the Daily Herald‘s report:

As of 8 p.m. [MST] Tuesday, Austin said Colby was in his third hour of a five-to-six-hour surgery to put in two rods, one in the back of the neck and one in the front to stabilize the neck.

“It’s going to be a long road to recovery,” Austen said. “We’ll know the exact details after he comes out of surgery. The doctors were confident that there wouldn’t be any hiccups but they need to do the back, then flip him over and do the front.”


The injury Jorgensen sustained came in the midst of a very intense practice, as Jay Drew of the Salt Lake Tribune detailed on his Twitter feed throughout the day.

Jorgensen was a 2011 signee who went on a mission following that season and was on BYU’s roster in 2014. He has yet to record a statistic for the Cougars in his two seasons.

Just last week, Jorgensen was married.

(Photo credit: BYU athletics)