Bielema: Illinois RB Brown’s leg injury improving

Illinois coach Bret Bielema mentioned Monday that junior working again Chase Brown is “trending in the correct path” forward of the sport Saturday at No. 3 Michigan.

“Very constructive and excited, however do not know the place we’ll be by Friday for the journey and Saturday for the sport,” Bielema mentioned.

Brown left within the last minute of the 31-24 loss to Purdue on Saturday with a proper leg damage.

With the Combating Illini down 10 factors and driving deep in Purdue territory, Brown hauled in a 10-yard reception and fell awkwardly out of bounds as he was being tackled by linebacker OC Brothers. Brown needed to be helped again to the Illinois bench and could not put any weight on the injured leg.

Brown is the nation’s main rusher, with 1,442 yards, and he had 98 yards and two scores towards the Boilermakers — snapping his 10-game streak of 100-yard dashing totals relationship again to final season.

He grew to become the second participant in program historical past to hurry for no less than 3,000 profession yards as he moved into second place (3,008) on this system’s all-time dashing record (Robert Holcombe; 4,105 from 1994 to ’97). Bielema additionally introduced that sophomore cornerback Taz Nicholson will miss the remainder of the season with a wrist damage.

“He had a reasonably important damage,” Bielema mentioned of Nicholson. “He dislocated his wrist and performed a pair extra performs after it was dislocated, which was wonderful. … He had surgical procedure on Saturday through the course of the sport. … He’ll have a second wave of surgical procedure. You are a timetable of 4 to 6 months for him.”

Illinois (7-3, 4-3 Massive Ten) has dropped its previous two video games — each at residence — and is now in a four-way tie atop the Massive Ten West.