The Virginia football team will begin its season in less than two weeks without one of its most experienced players on defense. UVA coach Tony Elliott confirmed on Monday that linebacker Kam Robinson underwent surgery for a fractured collarbone and will miss an undetermined amount of games.
Robinson’s injury occurred during the first full pads practice of the preseason according to Elliott, who said an initial x-ray showed nothing significant but the team elected to do a follow-up CT scan to be extra careful. That revealed a slight fracture and the junior linebacker subsequently had surgery.
“The best thing to do was to go ahead and get it fixed now as opposed to waiting til it goes out in the season,” Elliott said. “We anticipate he’ll be down for a couple of weeks. I think he gets the stitches out this week and then he’ll be back into conditioning. Obviously, they had to put a plate in and some screws. It’s fixed. Now, we’ve just got to get him back in football shape. It could be a couple of games in before he’s ready to roll.”
Recovery timelines for a broken collarbone can vary based on the severity of the fracture, the individual, and other factors. A 6- to 8-week recovery timeline from the time of the break (approximately Aug. 7 in Robinson’s case) would put him in range for return near the ACC opener, which is the fourth contest for the Cavaliers.
Virginia opens the season with Coastal Carolina on Saturday, August 30 at 6 p.m. at Scott Stadium. The Hoos travel to NC State for a non-conference matchup on Saturday, Sept. 6 and then returns home to face William & Mary on Sat. Sept. 13. UVA opens ACC play with Stanford on Sat. Sept. 20 and plays a night game against Florida State on Friday, Sept. 26 in Charlottesville.
The Cavaliers obviously would like him in the lineup.
Robinson started 19 games the past two seasons. He led all ACC freshmen in 2023 with 71 tackles on the way to various freshman All-American honors. Last season, he led the Hoos in sacks per game at 0.45 and posted 64 tackles on the way to All-ACC Honorable Mention recognition. Athlon Sports picked him as a preseason third-team All-ACC member.
He has 135 career tackles with 6 sacks and 3 interceptions. That includes a 28-yard interception return for touchdown against Louisville in 2023.
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