USC Football News: Significant Injuries Suffered vs. Washington

USC football news on the injury front does not look good coming out of the 17-12 loss to Washington as Steve Sarkisian revealed Friday that injuries to Claude Pelon, Iman Marshall, Steven Mitchell and Max Tuerk were “significant.”

Sark says injuries to Pelon, Tuerk, Biggie & Mitchell are all "significant," but didn't have concrete update on them. #USC
— Adam Maya (@AdamJMaya) October 9, 2015

Pelon, who suffered a high ankle sprain during practice earlier in the week, came out of the game Thursday with a knee problem. The defensive lineman told Shotgun Spratling of USCfootball.com that he is scheduled for an MRI Friday.

Freshman cornerback Marshall was injured on a blindside block, while Mitchell suffered a sprained ankle in the first half. Starting center and preseason All-American Max Tuerk went down with a sprained knee. Lindsey Thiry of the LA Times reported that he had a brace on his right knee after the game.

Since Sarkisian did not have any further updates on the specifics of each player’s injury, but lumped them all into the potentially “significant” category, the Trojans could head into the key match up with Notre Dame light four key contributors.

Pelon is not a starter on the defensive line but he has been a regular in the rotation and played a major role for USC against ASU when Antwaun Woods was unavailable.

Marshall has been a bright spot for the Trojans early this season and his absence would mean more limitations when it comes to using two-way star Adoree’ Jackson on offense.

Mitchell’s injury only exacerbated the Jackson conundrum because the USC offense could be without the second leading receiver on the team and a clear scoring threat in the slot. Jackson could alleviate some of that loss, if concerns on defense did not come into play.

As for Tuerk, losing the leader on USC’s offensive line for any extended period would increase pressure on an already questionable offensive line. On the plus side, sophomore Toa Lobendahn took over for Tuerk in what many believe to be his natural position with Viane Talamaivao stepping back into his spot at guard.

Whether one or all are out for Notre Dame, the Trojans are in rough shape in more than one way heading to South Bend.

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