Ben Mason to undergo knee surgery, miss ‘about a month and a half’

The Michigan Wolverines were already down a man in tight end Tyrone Wheatley after he broke a bone in his foot this spring. Now they will be without one of the guys expected to take a big leap in the offense in 2018.

Michigan sophomore fullback Ben Mason suffered a meniscus tear in his knee sometime this spring. He will undergo surgery soon and miss about a month and a half after the surgery, according to Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh on his podcast this week.

“He was cracking skulls, doing Ben Mason stuff as spring ball was going, and he’d complained a little bit about his knee, his knee just didn’t feel right,” Harbaugh said. ”Trainers couldn’t find anything really wrong with it. But another practice goes by, he keeps practicing and then finally did an MRI and he figured he had a meniscal tear and better to go in and do surgery on the meniscal tear (and) sew it back together then to keep playing on it. He’ll be out for about a month and a half. We’ll get him back fully up to speed.

“He would’ve kept going had we not gotten that MRI. He’s doing good.”

The good news here is Mason didn’t continue playing on his injury and received an MRI after the nagging pain; it could’ve worsened had he not done that. It’s also great that he isn’t expected to miss too much time, so he should be good to go for the season opener barring any setbacks in his recovery.

Mason is expected to see time at both fullback and linebacker this season. He was a backup to fullbacks Khalid Hill and Henry Poggi last season, but still saw significant playing time on special teams throughout the entire season and at fullback down the stretch. It’s not yet known which linebacker spot he will see time at, but there is a vacancy left by Mike McCray, so that could open a door for playing time on defense for Mason.

He scored his first touchdown against Wisconsin and another against South Carolina and is fully expected to take over the starting fullback job with Hill’s and Poggi’s graduation.