Michigan State football EDGE Anelu Lafaele spotted in boot

Michigan State football fell to Nebraska 27-38 on Saturday. However, during the game, one of the top storylines was how the Spartans had finally found a semblance of a pass rush, with Joe Rossi’s defense and his creative blitzes bringing down Dylan Raiola five times.

However, one question nagging in my mind was, where was Anelu Lafaele? The redshirt freshman turned heads with a strip sack on his first career snap, and then tackle for no gain (after hitting the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage) on his first snap the next week. Through the first four weeks, Lafaele had shown pop, with two sacks and six tackles.

On Saturday, he only played six snaps, and recorded a single tackle. However, an image shared by ESPN Honolulu post-game revealed the cause. Lafaele was on crutches and in a boot, with no pads on. This was an image with all the Hawaii natives between Nebraska and MSU, however, it revealed something that the media was unaware of. The redshirt freshman was injured.

Plenty of postgame shakas after @HuskerFootball faced @MSU_Football this weekend! #808AtTheNextLevel pic.twitter.com/nXgmATCX9C

— ESPN Honolulu (@ESPNHonolulu) October 6, 2025

Lafaele joins a list of Michigan State football injuries

Despite the pormises of depth and that this year would be different for the Spartan injury front, things are spiraling in week six. The Spartans have already lost three defenders for the season, with linebacker Brady Pretzlaff and defensive backs Caleb Gash and Andrew Brinson IV all being shut down for the season.

Additionally, the Spartans have missed Nikai Martinez for 3.5 of their five contests, with the safety’s only full game coming against FCS Youngstown State. Additionally, defensive tackle Jalen Satchell and defensive back Dontavius Nash just recorded their first games played of the season against Nebraska. Naturally, that came at the cost of losing linebacker Marcellius Pulliam and defensive back Ade Willie for the first time of the year.

Additionally, against USC, the Spartans played through the final half of the game without Quindarius Dunnigan and Wayne Matthews III.

By the way, all of those listed injuries have just been on the defensive side of the ball.

Offensively, Brennan Parachek, Ashton Lepo, Luka Vincic, Alante Brown and Stanton Ramil have all missed time, with Vincic being out for the year.

Lafaele is not even the first second year player in a walking boot, as Makhi Frazier was in one after the YSU game, and Charlton Luniewski was spotted in one prior to that game.

Not even special teams is exempt, as kickers Martin Connington and Tarik Ahmetbasic have both missed time, along with 2024 starting long snapper Kaden Schickel.

How does this affect the depth?

The edge room was running on a four-man rotation, with Lafaele splitting reps with starter Isaac Smith, David Santiago, and Cam Williams. Additionally, Tyler Gillison was the next player off the bench the one time the Spartans muscled out to a big lead, against YSU. Walk-ons Stone Chaney and Luke DeJager complete the room, but Chaney has been spotted in a jersey and sweats pregame this season.

Until Santiago got a first-half sack against Dylan Raiola, Lafaele had the distinction of being the only EDGE rusher with a sack. Now, Santiago will be relied upon to be stepping up with his podcast partner likely out for a bit.