Iowa two-sport athlete Ben Kueter to undergo hip surgery, miss 2025 football season

IOWA CITY — Iowa two-sport athlete Ben Kueter will undergo hip surgery and miss the 2025 football season, his mother Tina said Thursday evening in a Facebook post.

“He was having hip issues this fall that (we) thought would go away,” Kueter’s mother said. “He is having an arthroscopy with a hip repair. The recovery is extensive, but sounds like he will be brand new and feel so much better! Flexibility and range of motion will be back to normal!”

The surgery will happen on Friday, according to his mother, with an expected recovery timeline of four to six months — and take six to eight months to feel 100 percent, “if not better.”

Kueter, a former Iowa City High standout, arrived on campus in 2023 with plans to both play linebacker and wrestle for the Hawkeyes. He did not participate in football in 2024-25 to focus on the wrestling season.

The redshirt freshman heavyweight earned All-America honors after finishing eighth at the NCAA wrestling championships. He placed third at the Big Ten championships.

Kueter signaled an interest in returning to football, saying “back to football” in a tweet following the NCAA championships. Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz suggested in his spring news conference, however, that Kueter should “take time to think this whole thing out.”

“I’ve got to think he’s got a great opportunity in front of him there (with wrestling), too,” Ferentz said. “Not that he doesn’t here, but it’s a real challenge trying to balance two sports. That’s a challenge. So we’ll wait and see what happens here.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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