Injury ends playing career of UVA linebacker Malcolm Cook

UVA football coach Bronco Mendenhall announced today sixth-year linebacker Malcolm Cook has elected to end his participation and have a medical procedure for a sports hernia. As a result, he will miss the remainder of the season, including a potential bowl game.

Cook has appeared in four games this season and accounted for 20 tackles. During 19 career games, he amassed 70 total tackles and two sacks.

This year Cook started the season-opener against Richmond making five tackles. He followed that up with nine tackles at Indiana before missing the next three games. He returned to action against No. 16 Miami and made five tackles and broke up one pass. At Duke, he made one tackle in his final UVA appearance.

Cook missed the entire 2016 season due to a medical condition. He returned to the field in 2017 and appeared in nine of UVA’s 13 games with six starts. He made his first collegiate start against William & Mary and led UVA with 13 tackles and notched his first career sack.

“We had a long and really hard conversation for someone who has gone through so much so many times,” Mendenhall said. “He does not have a great understanding yet as to how come he has had this many challenges. But what he does have is a good understanding of how to deal with adversity, how to recover and how to move forward. That has given him great preparation for his life and for his future. I probably have never worked with a player that has had more challenges and more setbacks and more recoveries. It is a difficult thing to have his playing career close for UVA without him being on the field. I think his teammates certainly see that and recognize it as well as all of us on the coaching staff. This last injury has just proven to be lingering, long-lasting and not recoverable enough to get him back on the field within the time frame needed.”