Junior defensive tackle Eric LeGrand suffered a spinal cord injury in the fourth quarter Saturday and has no movement beneath his neck, Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano announced.

The 20-year-old underwent emergency surgery at Hackensack Medical Center throughout the night to stabilize his spine, which was injured at the C3-C4 level. The injury came when LeGrand made a tackle on a kickoff against Army at New Meadowlands Stadium with 5:02 remaining in the contest.

“As you can imagine, it’s a nightmare for any parent,” Schiano said. “He’s got a great family. They were all there last night. We spent the entire night together. There’s going to be a lot of nights together on this path back.

“Eric’s spirits were as good as you could expect and he was cognizant of me being there and his mom and everybody. I saw him before and after surgery. He’s a fighter.”

LeGrand remained on the field after the hit for about seven minutes, with Schiano and the medical staff quickly at his side. Medical personnel removed his facemask, immobilized his neck and strapped him to a backboard before carting him off.

Schiano spoke to LeGrand’s mother, who made her way to the sideline and, visibly shaken, held an abbreviated postgame press conference so he could join LeGrand.

Teammates joined Schiano and LeGrand’s family after the 23-20 overtime win.

“There were some of the guys that are very close to Eric’s mom and to the family,” Schiano said. “They just came to give the family support. There were some other athletes that Eric is friends with from other teams. Throughout the night, people were rolling in and out.”

The injury came in the midst of the Scarlet Knights’ comeback win, and after he left the field the defense created a takeaway, made a late-game stop and held Army to a field goal in overtime to set up the game-winning score.

“[Schiano] said we still have a football game to play,” said senior captain and defensive tackle Charlie Noonan. “We all love Eric and he’s in our prayers. We went out and played for Eric. We had to stay in the moment, stay in the now and realize that it was the Army game and that was still right here.”

Schiano echoed that sentiment Sunday, when he updated his team on LeGrand’s status and again spoke of continuing to prepare and play — something many Knights said they did for LeGrand in the final minutes of Saturday’s game.

“I’m very honest with the guys and I tell them exactly what’s going on and I also talk to them a great deal about how Eric plays, how he approached things and how we’re going to continue to approach them,” Schiano said. “He’s not playing right now, but there’s no doubt that he would want us to go out and prepare and play the way he did.”

Schiano dealt with a spine injury on his team in 2004, when cornerback Dondre Asberry was in a car accident and hit head on by an SUV.

But Schiano never dealt with an on-field injury.

The 10th-year head coach reached out to Penn State head coach Joe Paterno, who Schiano worked under for six years and dealt with a similar situation with former Nittany Lion Adam Taliaferro.

The pair spoke to make sure Schiano, who said there is grief counseling available to the team, did not overlook anything.

While neither Asberry nor Taliaferro ever played again, the latter made headlines for recovering to walk and lead the team out of the tunnel before a game.

Schiano believes LeGrand will do the same.

“As I talked to our team, we believe that Eric LeGrand is going to walk onto that field again with us,” Schiano said. “That’s what we believe.”