All-MAC linebacker Nick Duffy has likely played his final game for NIU after suffering a broken fibula in his right leg Saturday at Central Michigan.

Duffy doesn’t remember much of the play.

In the fourth quarter, the play turned out to be one of the biggest in his life, for all the wrong reasons.

In an instant, the senior captain’s MAC Championship dreams were put on hold.

As Duffy went to make a tackle in NIU’s 40-24 win at Central Michigan, all he remembers is his foot getting caught underneath him and his weight and the weight of a CMU defender coming down on that foot.

He heard a pop.

The pop turned out to be his right fibula breaking under the weight.

“I knew it was broke right away,” Duffy said.

Duffy had surgery Sunday morning at Kishwaukee Community Hospital to repair the damage.

He will spend the next six weeks in a cast.

After six weeks, Duffy will begin rehab and try to get back into football. He said he hopes, if all goes well, that he could play in the MAC Championship Game (Dec. 4) or a bowl game, if NIU were to make one.

“This is probably the worst thing that has happened to me,” Duffy said. “You work year-round for something, and it’s hard, especially as a senior. It’s your last opportunity to play. I never thought anything like this would happen to me.”

Duffy still wants to play football after NIU. He is expected to be back to 100 percent by January or February, he said.

Duffy had started 31 straight games and has 334 career tackles, No. 1 on the team.

NIU coach Joe Novak has called Duffy the kind of player that defines the program, tough and hard-nosed.

Junior Jason Hawkins will take over Duffy’s spot.

“Jason is a good player,” Novak said. “It just so happens he plays at a position with six good players.”