The Notre Dame Fighting Irish suffered a major blow recently with the ankle injury to junior guard Markus Burton. Burton has been the team’s leading scorer to start the 2025-26 season, and he will be out for an indefinite amount of time. But to help offset the loss of Burton, Notre Dame dipped into the ranks of the football team for immediate help.
Following the injury prognosis for Markus Burton, Notre Dame added defensive back Mark Zackery IV from the school’s football team to the roster, as per Jeff Borzello of ESPN. A freshman, Zackery was a dual sport athlete at Ben Davis High School playing both basketball and football. He helped lead his team to a state championship during his sophomore year.
It’s uncertain how much playing time Zackery will actually receive, but he gives the Fighting Irish some depth at guard as well as an experienced hand. But replacing Burton’s production in general is not going to be an easy task.
Burton has been an impact player since he arrived at Notre Dame ahead of the 2023-24 season, and he had helped lead the team to a 7-3 starts.
He had appeared in 10 games so far, at a little over 30 minutes per game. He had been averaging 18.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.6 steals with splits of 48.9 percent shooting from the field, 30.6 percent shooting from the 3-point line and 91.7 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
Notre Dame is in the program’s third year under Micah Shrewsberry as head coach. The program has not finished with a winning record since the 2021-22 season, and has missed the NCAA Tournament for the past three years.
