CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina senior rush/outside linebacker Kaimon Rucker badly injured the middle finger on his right hand late in the loss at Clemson last November, and after a lengthy period of it not healing properly, had surgery on it Monday and will miss the remainder of spring practice.

Rucker participated in spring practice through last Saturday, playing four snaps in the Tar Heels’ scrimmage. But he has shut it down for the rest of spring, and will spend likely at least two months continuing to rehab. The Georgia native said Tuesday morning he will be ready to go when fall camp begins in more than three months.

“I don’t look at it as a setback, more like an elongated timeout,” he said about the setback, following Carolina’s practice Tuesday morning.

Rucker suffered the injury late in UNC’s loss at Clemson on November 18, but isn’t sure on exactly which play. He said after getting up from a play, it felt like his finer was in a slingshot.

“I say that because every time I tried to put my hand in a fist, it would snap down before my fingers could react to it,” he said.

He played a week later at NC State, and even in the bowl loss to West Virginia, though Rucker says the pain had gone down by the December 28 game against the Mountaineers.

Rucker played 91 snaps in the Clemson game, but a week later, after sustaining the injury, played 75 snaps at NC State. He was in for 58 snaps in the bowl loss to West Virginia.

*Full Kaimon Rucker interview below.

Getting through those games and the practices in between wasn’t easy, but Rucker had a little help.

“A buttload of Tylenol, that’s definitely number one,” Rucker said, chuckling.

The pain wasn’t too unbearable for the bowl game, but it was in the loss to State. He couldn’t “strike blocks the way I wanted to,” and just couldn’t play to his standard.

The specifics of the injury are?

“I ruptured the central tendon in my middle finger…,” Rucker said. “I’ve been playing through it, practicing through it. This was kind of like a procedure that was already in the making. Doing it was just a matter of time and when.”

With Geoff Collins coming in as the new defensive coordinator, Rucker didn’t want to miss the majority of the scheme installation, so he held off getting the surgery until most of that was done.

“I wanted to get at least some of the install that we have (this) spring before made an official decision on it,” he said.

In discussing it with the training staff and UNC Coach Mack Brown, a decision was made for Rucker to not only be out there for most of the install, but so Collins could get a feel for how the defense will work with Rucker as one of the point men on that side of the ball.

He will have his finger in a splint for a month, and then he should speed up the process, though it remains two-to-three months.

Rucker was fifth on the team last season with 61 tackles. He led the Tar Heels with 15 TFLs, including 8.5 as sacks. He forced a fumble, recovered a fumble, and was credited by PFF with 41 hurries, 36 STOPs (plays that result in failures for the opposing offense), and graded out at 79.5 for the season.

UNC opens the 2024 season August 28 at Minnesota.