Report: Clowney battled hernia injury last year at South Carolina

Published Jun. 27, 2014 9:20 a.m. ET

foxsports

Former South Carolina defensive end and No. 1 overall draft pick Jadeveon Clowney recently had surgery to fix a sports hernia, which caused him to miss minicamp.

Clowney passed all of his physicals prior to the NFL Draft, and the issue wasn't diagnosed until Houston Texans team doctors asked about the injury when Clowney reported for OTAs.

But according to an NFL.com report, Clowney played through the injury for his entire junior season at South Carolina.

He thought it was just a groin injury and decided not to look into it further.

It's not an injury that will have any real effect on Clowney or the Texans -- he's expected to full participate in training camp -- but the timetable is notable because of how much scrutiny Clowney received last season for his perceived lack of effort at South Carolina.

Clowney asked out a game against Kentucky, which drew interesting postgame comments from head coach Steve Spurrier.

"If he doesn't want to play, he doesn't have to, simple as that," Spurrier said.