Notre Dame forward Tim Abromaitis will miss the rest of the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during practice Friday.
The fifth-year senior and co-captain played in two of the Irish's six games this season, averaging 14 points and seven rebounds a game.
Abromaitis was forced to sit out the first four games of this season because of a misunderstanding of NCAA rules from his sophomore season in 2008-09, when he played in a pair of exhibitions before redshirting that season.
The loss is a crushing blow to Notre Dame (4-2), which lost its previous two games at the CBE Classic in Kansas City, Mo., and has one other senior in co-captain Scott Martin.
"Tim Abromaitis is one of the great stories in college athletics and represents everything that is good about college basketball," Irish coach Mike Brey said in a statement. "We are all disappointed for Tim because of all that he has meant to our program. He has been such a big part of our success over the past three seasons. Tim is such a special young man and an unbelievable representative of Notre Dame both on and off the basketball court."
Abromaitis was a preseason All-Big East selection who played on the USA men's basketball World University Games team this past August.
He finishes his college career averaging less than 13.7 points a game and just less than 4.8 rebounds per game.
He is expected to undergo surgery in the next two weeks.
Matt Fortuna blogs on Notre Dame for ESPN.com.