Tylee Craft, a wide receiver on the UNC football team, announced on Twitter Wednesday he had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer earlier this month. Craft said in the announcement he has already started chemotherapy.

Craft had been struggling with debilitating back pain recently, which led him to visit a doctor.

“It got to the point where we wanted to find out if something else was going on,” Craft said in his announcement.

The check-up revealed Craft’s cancer. The rising junior from Sumter, S.C., will be stepping away from the field while he fights the disease, but said he isn’t giving up on football just yet.

“I plan on getting back on the field as soon as possible,” Craft said. “My family and I are in good spirits and we’re getting all the support we could ever ask for from the football program, the athletics department, and the medical professionals here at UNC.”

“Tylee is a great young man, who is facing a tough situation, but we’re so proud of the way he’s handling it,” UNC head coach Mack Brown said on Twitter. “Tar Heel Nation, let’s rally around Tylee and his family and lift them up with thoughts and prayers as they begin the road to recovery.”

Craft appeared in four games for the Tar Heels during the 2021 season, both as a wide receiver and on special teams.

This won’t be the first time the program has rallied around a member fighting a long-term illness. Mitch Mason, the UNC football team chaplain, has been battling a rare neurological disease since being diagnosed in the summer of 2020.

 

Featured image via 247 Sports

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