And sprains, and twists and now tears.

Pitt redshirt junior defensive end Doug Fulmer is out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

It is another in a run of tough breaks for Fulmer, who missed all of last season with a torn ACL in his right knee and missed the final eight games of the 2006 season with a broken left ankle.

Fulmer had barely seen any action for most of training camp as the coaches were being cautions with getting him out in drills. He almost immediately gets hurt again.

“He has a tear in a ligament in his other knee – the good knee – and he will have surgery,” Wannstedt said. “It’s just a matter of when. They’re working out the details of all that. It’s just so unfortunate because the guy just hasn’t had a chance the last couple years because of the variety of all the injuries that he’s had. The plan right now is he will have the surgery, we’ll see how the rehab goes and go from there.”

Fulmer’s career is not over — though, if he wanted to quit after this setback I would not begrudge him. He still has next season. He had a regular redshirt in 2005. He missed all of last season without a medical redshirt. The NCAA has on occasion granted an extra redshirt for some who have had this kind of bad luck, so there is a chance that Fulmer may be that rare 6-year player — hey, with a broken ankle and ACL tears in both knees the least he should have is a chance to earn a Masters on scholarship.

From a team standpoint and depth, it is not nearly as big a blow as it was not having him last year. Jabaal Sheard, Greg Romeus, Tony Tucker are definitely in the two deep. Tyler Tkach can be a solid contributor there. To say nothing of Craig Bokor and Justin Hargrove might be able to get a chance.

Still, here’s hoping for another full recovery for Fulmer.