Mohamed Kaba on possible retirement with injury history: 'That's never an option for me'

It hasn’t been easy for Mohamed Kaba. In Week 2 of the 2022 campaign, the South Carolina linebacker suffered a season-ending torn ACL in his right knee. After a grueling recovery, Kaba went down in the 2023 season-opener against North Carolina with a torn ACL in his left knee.

Many athletes in Kaba’s position would have called it quits. However, Kaba claimed he never even considered it. On Wednesday, the redshirt senior pulled back the curtain on his winding road to recovery.

“That’s never an option for me to stop,” Kaba said. “If I was to stop, I would never know what the results would be from all the hard work I put in all my life. So I know I still got it. Unfortunate that it happened. But I’m not just going to wallow about it and say, ‘Oh, it’s over for me.’

“I’m not going to stop just because I’ve had multiple injuries. Many people would probably be done in my position. But I’m not in the same bracket as those people. I’m going to keep going because I know what I can do.”

Kaba has proven his talent when he’s been healthy. In his sophomore season, Kaba played in all 13 games for South Carolina, tallying 32 tackles, including a pair of tackles for loss. In the spring of 2022, he earned the team’s Most Improved Player Award on defense and was expected to have a breakout season.

Mohamed Kaba never stopped fighting

Obviously, Kaba hasn’t had a chance to show off his skills in a full season since. While Kaba admits his fight to return to the field was difficult, he never lost faith in himself.

“When I was going through that process, it was real tough,” Kaba said. “I tried so hard to get back as fast as possible. For that to happen in the first game, it’s unfortunate.

“There’s nothing at that moment I could’ve done to prevent what happened because what happened is going to happen. There’s nothing I could’ve done about it,” he said. “It was just anger towards myself of like, ‘Man, why is this happening?’ But God always has a plan for me, and I’m going to trust in the plan and just keep working.”

Mohamed Kaba won’t have to wait much longer to see his hard work come to fruition. On Aug. 31, South Carolina will kick off its 2024 campaign in a showdown against Old Dominion. Kaba can’t wait to return to the gridiron.

“Being gone for two years now, every moment that I have on the field is so fun compared to being in my room. I’m appreciating every little moment,” Kaba said.