MANHATTAN (KSNT)- K-State linebacker Daniel Green is out for the season, Chris Klieman confirmed to reports on Tuesday.

Green, in his sixth-year with the ‘Cats, sustained a pectoral injury during K-State’s loss at Missouri. He had surgery Tuesday morning, Klieman said. He was voted team captain this fall for the second-straight season.

“It was a tough day on Sunday when he came up and we all knew,” Klieman said. “[He] kind of went around from different office to office… the amount of respect that all of our coaches, support staff and stuff have for Deuce [Green] because he’s been with us the whole time here.”

The devastating injury likely ends his college career, as Green was using his ‘COVID year’ to play one final season of college football. Klieman said the idea of Green getting another year of eligibility is something he will ‘investigate.’

Green isn’t the only injury K-State is dealing with right now. K-State could be without its starting quarterback and one of its running backs on Saturday, too. Click here for a full injury update from Chris Klieman.

“It’s been a tough couple days around here for myself, for a lot of the sixth-year guys, a lot of the linebackers because he’s been the heart and soul for those guys, and for our football team,” Klieman said. “Daniel and I have been through an awful lot since the first day I got here.”

Green told K-Nation last spring, shortly after announcing his decision to return, that he wasn’t fully healthy for most of the 2022 season and wanted to prove himself in one last season with K-State.

Klieman reflected on Green’s growth since the two first met.

“I’ve never seen a young man grow into such a man, and what a leader that Daniel Green is and has been, and will still be for our players this year but he’ll do it in a different light as more of a student coach,” Klieman said.”

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Fellow linebacker Jake Clifton is also out with an injury. True freshman and Hillsboro, Mo. native Austin Romaine is listed first at the middle linebacker spot in this week’s K-State football depth chart.

Green had nine tackles, including 2.5 tackles for loss in K-State’s week three game in Columbia.

“I’m gut-wrenched by losing him, and not just [because of] the football part of it,” Klieman said.

He had 232 total tackles in his college career, just 18 short of becoming the 27th player in K-State football history to reach 250 tackles.

“Now some other guys have to step up,:” Klieman said.

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The injury has his teammates hurting, too.

“Completely sick for him,” linebacker and fellow team captain Austin Moore said. “Not going to lie, I was pretty emotional about it yesterday. I look up to him so much and I know the sacrifice and the hard work that he’s put into this place. He’s made me better, he’s made so many guys around us better. K-State’s a better place because he came here. Not just because of what he did on the football field, but just because of the how many people he’s impacted and made their lives better.”

Green was one of the only K-State football players still on the team dating back to the Bill Snyder era. He redshirted as a true freshman in 2018 during Bill Snyder’s final season as head coach.

“[I feel] so sick for him,” Moore said. “It’s not fair and we’re going to be playing for him the rest of the year.”