For a team already thin at linebacker, this loss could prove to be a tough blow for Texas A&M.

Following Tuesday night’s practice down in College Station, Jimbo Fisher announced outside linebacker Ikenna Okeke will be out for the season after injuring his knee. Okeke arrived in College Station as a defensive back out of Tennessee but has since bulked up to play linebacker in Mike Elko’s defense.

“Okeke is going to be out for the year, he hurt a knee,” Fisher said Tuesday night. “(Anthony) Hines will be fine, he got tweaked up… It’s tough, it matters but we have some other guys. To go out there and play as well as we did on defense — we had other guys playing that spot, you can play with nickel and dime guys and some different packages, which we have, that you can mix in.”

While he admits it hurts to lose a player, Fisher said his concerns regarding the loss of toughness and physicality he’s seen from his defense during training camp may have been unfounded following the loss of Okeke.

“That’s one of the things that has me excited, because I was worried about that, you worry about physicality when you lose backers when you don’t have a lot of right now,” Fisher said. “I thought they did a really nice job of filling in and making plays.”

Fisher went on to say junior defensive back Larry Pryor could be shifted down to linebacker to help the Aggies’ depth at the position with Okeke now gone for the season.

Okeke appeared in only two games for the Aggies last season as a safety during his redshirt freshman season. He was shifted down to linebacker this season in hopes of landing a more significant role in the team’s defense but those plans have been put on hold for the time being.