Penn State Football: Injury Sidelines Mauti for Remainder of 2011

Michael Mauti, the Penn State football team’s starting outside linebacker, will be benched for the rest of the 2011 season, thanks to a serious knee injury, the university athletics department announced Sunday.

Mauti tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the first quarter of Saturday’s Penn State-Eastern Michigan game at Beaver Stadium, according to a university news release.  

He’s set to undergo surgery within two weeks, and rehabilitation will require at least nine months’ time, the release notes. It cites Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli, the Penn State director of athletic medicine.

Meanwhile, PSU senior cornerback D’Anton Lynn, who was taken from the field Saturday on a back board, has been released from Mount Nittany Medical Center. Lynn’s head, neck and spinal column were examined, the university athletics department reported.

‘He will be evaluated throughout the upcoming week by the Penn State medical staff,’ the news release reads.

Mauti is one of Penn State’s leading tacklers this season, and Saturday’s mishap marks his second serious knee injury, as the athletics department reported. He tore his right ACL in an August 2009 practice session and went on to miss the entire 2009 season.

Mauti played as a true freshman in 2008.

Related coverage

• Penn State Football: Mauti’s Injury is Stupar’s Last Chance for Greatness, No Matter How it’s Defined (Sept. 24, 2011)

• StateCollege.com’s Penn State football page