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Notre Dame sophomore DE Aiden Gobaira out for 2023 season with knee injury

IMG_7504by:Jack Soble•08/12/23•

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Notre Dame sophomore defensive end Aiden Gobaira. (Chad Weaver, Blue & Gold)

Sophomore defensive end Aiden Gobaira appeared to suffer a non-contact knee injury during Tuesday night’s practice. Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman confirmed the team’s worst fears.

Gobaira will miss the 2023 season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), Freeman announced during his press conference Saturday.

Near the beginning of full-team action in practice Tuesday, Gobaira broke into the backfield for what would have been a tackle for loss. Just before the play finished, he started hopping around awkwardly, holding his right knee before going down. Gobaira was helped off the field and went into the medical tent behind the east end zone, where trainers checked him out.

He did not return to practice, but he was seen toward the end of it with his pads off and an ice pack on his knee. On Thursday, Gobaira was at practice, but he was in street clothes, on crutches and wearing an immobilizing brace on his right knee.

Freeman provided official confirmation on the extent of Gobaria’s injury Saturday.

Gobaira was a consensus four-star recruit in the class of 2022, coming in as the No. 177 player and No. 20 edge rusher in the On3 Industry Ranking. He committed to Notre Dame on Feb. 6, 2021, over offers from Penn State, Michigan State and Kentucky, among 13 others.

At Chantilly (Va.) High, Gobaira dominated the spring 2021 season. He totaled 16 sacks in eight games, finishing the season as a semifinalist for the Maxwell Football Club National High School Defensive Player of the Year Award and being named the Regional Defensive Player of the Year.

Gobaira received an offer from Notre Dame on May 5, 2020, as his speed off the edge caught the Irish’s attention. He unofficially visited South Bend on Feb. 2, 2021, and he committed four days later.

“[Gobaira] has speed that I haven’t seen in a while from a freshman, especially on the defensive end side,” then-senior defensive tackle Howard Cross III said in April 2022.

After enrolling early at Notre Dame in the spring of 2022, Gobaira redshirted his freshman year, playing only one snap on defense during Notre Dame’s 44-0 win over Boston College on Nov. 19.

Gobaira was set to slot in behind graduate students Javontae Jean-Baptiste and Nana Osafo-Mensah on the strong-side defensive end depth chart, and possibly fellow sophomore Tyson Ford as well.

However, losing a year of Gobaira’s development is a blow for the Irish.

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