Swinney Provides Update on Wesco’s Status

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney held a Zoom conference call with the media on Monday evening.

Swinney provided an update on the status of star wide receiver Bryant Wesco Jr., following his scary injury in last Saturday’s loss to SMU.

As you know, Wesco was injured during a punt return in the third quarter, when he was flipped up in the air by an SMU defender and landed on his head/neck area. Though he got up and walked off the field, Wesco eventually left the game and was transported to a nearby hospital. After the game, Swinney admitted they were not sure what Wesco’s injury was, except that it was a serious one.

On his weekly teleconference on Monday, Swinney gave an update on Wesco, saying prayers were answered with his injury.

Swinney said there were a lot of unknowns, but Wesco is out of the hospital and back home. He will be out for the season, according to Swinney, but he is expected to make a full recovery.

“Prayers answered. Just a blessing, kind of best-case scenario,” Swinney said. “It was a very, very scary injury, and the doctors did an amazing job. … Again, a very scary injury and a lot of kind of unknowns for the first 24 hours or so, but he’s actually out of the hospital and back home. Again, kind of best-case scenario.

“He’s done for the year, for sure, but the doctors are very confident he’ll make a full recovery. But definitely something that will keep him out the rest of this season. But thankful that all indications are he’s going to be OK, and just a real blessing for that. He got home today and was just kind of resting, so hopefully he’ll be back over here tomorrow and just continue getting better one day at a time.”

Swinney added that it was a back injury for Wesco.

“I won’t get into the details of it, but he didn’t have a fracture or anything like that. … But it was a very serious injury, and he’s very fortunate. Very fortunate,” Swinney said. “Again, the doctors did a great job. It was very scary, and like I said, he’s doing well and we expect him to make a full recovery. But we’re always going to take a huge amount of precaution with injuries of that nature, and so he’ll be out the rest of the season.”

Wesco, who is Clemson’s leading wide receiver on the season, left Saturday’s game without a catch. The sophomore finished with 31 catches for 537 yards and six touchdowns this season.

Following an open date this weekend, the Tigers (3-4, 2-3 ACC) return to the field on Saturday, Nov. 1 against Duke at Memorial Stadium (noon, ACC Network).