Former 49ers 1st-round draft pick just suffered another tough break in UFL

Reuben Foster, whose departure from the 49ers was mired in controversy, experienced yet another setback in his football career.

The emergence of All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner alleviated the San Francisco 49ers' disastrous 2017 first-round NFL Draft selection of former Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster.

Foster, who was seen as a top-10 prospect in that year's draft, saw his stock take a serious hit amid off-field and injury concerns, which led to the Niners trading up to grab him at No. 31 overall.

Despite his raw talents, both injuries and character concerns ultimately led to his untimely release in November of 2018, stemming from multiple legal run-ins and incidents. After a failed stint with the Washington Commanders not long thereafter, Foster hasn't graced an NFL field for a regular-season game since that 2018 campaign with San Francisco.

Having failed to stay within the NFL, Foster subsequently joined the USFL with the Pittsburgh Maulers in 2023 before being selected by the Houston Roughnecks in the 2024 UFL dispersal draft when both the USFL and XFL merged to form the UFL.

Unfortunately for Foster, his latest football stint just experienced another setback.

Reuben Foster suffers season-ending injury with Roughnecks

Admittedly, Niner Noise isn't keeping up with UFL developments these days. But Foster, now 30 years old, was trying to rehabilitate his career to a point where an NFL team could potentially take a flier on him for training camp.

Seven games into his UFL career, Foster suffered an injury and was placed on injured reserve, according to the league's PR department:

The nature of the injury wasn't specified.

Prior to this latest setback, Foster registered 30 tackles, three of which were for a loss, three passes broken up, an interception and half a sack.

Unfortunately, Foster's prior injury history casts a long shadow that'll grow longer in the wake of this recent development. Whatever dimming hope the once-promising prospect had to get back into the NFL ranks likely just vanished in the wake of the injury.

Still, one can hope he fully recovers and is able to continue playing football in one form or another.

Read more from Niner Noise