March Madness 2017: Notre Dame’s Rex Pflueger busted open vs Princeton

Notre Dame utility man Rex Pflueger took an elbow to the face against Princeton and had to leave the Irish’s March Madness opener

Sophomore forward Rex Pflueger does a little bit of everything for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. While he certainly isn’t a leader in any statistical category for the Irish, he’s a fantastic utility man that can score, rebound and pass effectively when he’s on the floor. With Notre Dame opening up their 2017 March Madness run against Princeton on Thursday, though, Pflueger might want to watch out for stray elbows. (WARNING: If you don’t do well with blood, don’t keep scrolling as there is a bloody image.)

Early in the action against the Ivy League Champions, the Fighting Irish found themselves entrenched in a hard-fought battle. That wasn’t just the case on the scoreboard, though, which the sophomore found out the hard way.

While battling inside to try and regain possession for the Irish, Pflueger took an elbow to the face and was in obvious pain. Trainers came over to attend to him as he was hunched over and clutching just above his eyes. When the cameras turned to a close-up of the forward, it was clear why he was in so much pain. The elbow apparently landed quite flush and busted him open and causing a lot of blood to appear.

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For those not too squeamish, see for yourself:

That’s probably not how Pflueger had hoped the start to his 2017 March Madness play would begin. However, as reported by ESPN’s Dana O’Neil, he returned after receiving stitches.

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Meanwhile, Notre Dame struggled to pull away from the Tigers in the first half. They amassed just a six-point lead in the first half. That left Princeton very much in range to pull off a patented 12-over-5 upset to start the tournament.