[Tuck4Bama]

If South Carolina plans to make a run at an SEC East crown, the Gamecocks will have to do so without their top defensive player.

All-conference middle linebacker Jasper Brinkley will undergo surgery Wednesday to repair a torn ligament in his right knee, Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier said Monday.

Spurrier said Brinkley likely is lost for the season, although USC coaches are optimistic the NCAA will approve a medical hardship to allow the senior to return for another year of eligibility. Spurrier was unclear on the length of Brinkley’s rehabilitation.

According to NCAA bylaws, athletes can apply for a hardship waiver if they are injured during the first half of the season and played in fewer than 30 percent of a team’s scheduled games — four games (rounded up from 3.6) in a 12-game football season.

Brinkley was injured during the first quarter Saturday in the Gamecocks’ fourth game at LSU.

“They’ve been pretty forgiving and lenient and helpful to student-athletes the last few years,” Spurrier said. “So it should not be a problem.”

Brinkley, a 6-foot-2, 262-pound native of Thomson, Ga., considered leaving for the NFL after the 2006 season before returning for his senior year. Brinkley was unavailable for comment Monday.

But USC defensive end Casper Brinkley said his twin brother indicated he would play for the Gamecocks in 2008.

“He’s coming back,” Casper Brinkley said. “He’s already said that.”

Casper Brinkley and USC defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix said the injury is to Jasper Brinkley’s lateral collateral ligament, a thin band along the outside of the knee that connects the thighbone to the fibula.

Injury ends Brinkley’s year