Nebraska LB JoJo Domann says his goodbye after undergoing surgery
After six years and 51 games, linebacker JoJo Domann's football career is over at Nebraska.
The Colorado native announced with HuskerOnline on his weekly podcast "The Beat" that he had surgery on his hand this past week.
The injury took place during NU's game against Purdue and he was faced with the decision this past week about his football future.
“On the first drive vs. Purdue I hit my hand on a helmet and ruptured the extensor tendon in my middle metacarpal in my finger on my left hand,” Domann said. “I remember looking down at my hand during the game, and my knuckle was dislocated and saying ‘that’s not good.’ I kind of wiggled my fingers around until it popped back into place and just forgot about it and played the rest of the game.
"Then on Sunday, I got it evaluated and on Monday I got some MRIs and met with Nebraska Orthopedic. That’s when I was suddenly faced with this situation of I need surgery, and sooner rather than later is the best. The sooner I get it, the less damage it would be, and it would be more of a repair. The longer I wait, the more of a chance I could mess it up more and it would be more of reconstruction, and that plays a role in the rehab time. I was faced with that decision on Tuesday, and that was tough to be in that space and for everything to kind of come to this point in time I didn’t feel like I was ready to make that decision. I definitely didn’t feel ready to let go of this place, and I’m just so thankful for my time here, I don’t ever want it to end.”
Domann said he chose to play one more game this past week vs. Ohio State in order to make sure his teammates and coaching staff had ample time to figure things out over the final two games of the season vs. Wisconsin and Iowa.
“I had a conversation with Coach (Erik) Chinander and he just needed to know who do I start preparing and who am I game planning with,” Domann said. “I decided on Wednesday I was going to (play). My decision on going was I felt like I needed closure. I didn’t want to end on those terms against Purdue. I wanted to know when my last game was. I was prepared for it to be against Iowa and for that to be cut short, I just needed some closure for myself.
"It also didn’t sit right to leave the Blackshirts like that and to leave Isaac Gifford out there with three days notice against the No. 1 offense in the country, so that’s kind of what went into the decision to play.”
Domann finishes his Husker career with 209 total tackles. His 133 solo tackles rank 11th on NU's all-time list just behind Carlos Polk (134) and Mike Brown (137) and Broderick Thomas (143).
His 209 career total tackles are 32nd on the all-time list, just 18 away from being in the top 20 all-time.
Domann plans to be around the program and with his team for their final two games against Wisconsin and Iowa. The Big Ten allows injured seniors the chance to travel and not count towards the 74-man travel roster.
“Even though my football career is over at Nebraska, I will always be a Nebraska Cornhusker and I hope to be in touch with this program and to have an influence on this place for years to come," Domann said.
"All week it was emotional, it was hard and I can’t believe it’s gotten to this point from me being just an 18-year-old kid to now being 24 playing for this program. The kid in me wants to play for Nebraska the rest of my life.”
You can listen to Domann's full interview on this week's episode of "The Beat" Podcast on the HuskerOnline Podcast Channel.