Micah Alejado Injury Update
Micah Alejado’s injury had football fans in Hawaii holding their breath over the weekend, and honestly, you couldn’t have scripted it better if you were a Hollywood screenwriter with a thing for drama. Here’s the real deal: During Hawaii’s 23-20 victory over Stanford on August 23, 2025, Alejado, their freshly anointed starting quarterback, hurt his right ankle—apparently a high-ankle sprain—partway through the third quarter. It wasn’t some giant, explosive collision; linebacker Matt Rose simply got through, landed the sack, and suddenly Alejado was down, limping and wincing, and every Rainbow Warriors fan’s stomach dropped.
He walked—okay, sort of grimaced and limped—off the field. For a minute there, it looked like the game was about to slip away. But if you’ve watched him before, you’ll know Alejado’s always been a gamer. Kid from Vegas, tons of poise, big chip on his shoulder. He got checked out. Trainers did what trainers do, probably squeezed and twisted his ankle a dozen different ways, but then—here’s the part that makes a local legend—he got back out there for Hawaii’s next series. He wasn’t exactly mobile, but hey, adrenaline (and whatever magic tape they have behind the scenes) goes a long way.
Let’s be honest—he didn’t look totally comfortable. Anyone who says “He barely noticed!” wasn’t watching. There were moments where he planted on that injured leg and winced, pausing just half a second longer before delivering the ball. Yet Alejado threw 27 completions on 39 attempts, racked up 210 yards, dropped in two touchdowns, and added another 36 yards on the ground. Not perfect, but for a guy who could’ve been done for the night, it was downright gutsy.
Here’s a flavor of what people were saying: One fan next to me (granted, several beers deep) kept hollering, “That’s heart! That’s old school!” and while the stadium didn’t exactly go silent after the injury, people were noticeably anxious with every snap. There’s always a moment in college football when you wonder if, for all the talk about “next man up,” the truth is some guys just can’t be replaced in the moment.
His coach and teammates stuck tight to the usual script in interviews—“He’s a warrior,” “We believe in him,” “He’s a leader,” etc.—but you could see in their eyes they were just relieved he came back and actually finished the game. As the victory set in, Alejado admitted he’d played through “a lot of pain” and that the final drive was particularly rough, but he kept telling himself not to let his guys down.
Now, for the folks worried about next week: As of the last update, Alejado said he was optimistic he could play against Arizona, but there’s a lot of healing (and probably ice baths) between now and game day. These ankle sprains can be tricky. Press conferences don’t always tell you what’s really going on underneath the pads, but one thing’s clear—this kid earned some fans Saturday night, and not just because of what he did, but how he gutted through it. College football’s full of pageantry, but moments like that? That’s the sort of thing people remember even when the stats are forgotten.
