KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Kansas football will have to beat TCU without Cornell Wheeler.

Wheeler, a redshirt senior linebacker, is not in uniform Saturday for the Jayhawks’ game against the Horned Frogs. Last week, late in a loss against West Virginia, he suffered an injury that caused him to miss time. Earlier in the week, Kansas head coach Lance Leipold had said Wheeler didn’t practice Monday.

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“We’ll see where it progresses with him, but he got hurt, he went back in and then we took him back out,” Leipold said Monday. “But we’ll see here. But, again, a lot of guys are limited on Monday’s.”

Wheeler’s absence could put more of a load on the shoulders of senior linebackers JB Brown and Taiwan Berryhill Jr. Those two have the cross-training experience to move into Kansas’ MIKE linebacker spot. It’s another injury for a position group that will also be without redshirt freshman linebacker Logan Brantley, although redshirt junior linebacker Jayson Gilliom is in uniform and went through warmups so that's one player set to return.

Wheeler came into this week as the Jayhawks’ leader in tackles with 24. He also has three tackles for loss and three pass breakups. Brown is the next closest linebacker in tackles with 18.

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas football linebacker Cornell Wheeler unavailable for game vs TCU