Oregon redshirt freshman offensive lineman Justin Johnson has been forced to medically retire from football and will no longer be available for the Ducks moving forward.

Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal confirmed the news to DuckTerritory.com when asked about Johnson's medical retirement.

Johnson didn't play in any games in 2018 as a true freshman because of an injury suffered early in fall camp. He wasn't allowed to practice for most of the football season. This year he hasn't been able to practice for most of the year once again because of another injury. He never saw the field at Oregon.

Johnson was one of five offensive linemen the Ducks signed in 2018 and part of a class that was ranked 13th nationally and second among Pac-12 schools.

The 6-foot-7, 350-pound tackle from Philadelphia's Neumann-Goretti high school was viewed as a promising player in Cristobal's first full recruiting class in 2018. He was a consensus three-star recruit and was named the 2017 Mr. PA Football Lineman of the Year for Class 1-3A. As a senior in high school, Johnson garnered first-team all-league honors.

Johnson chose the Ducks over offers from Boston College, BYU, Buffalo, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan State, Missouri, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, San Diego State, Syracuse, Temple, Texas Tech, Vanderbilt, Villanova, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and others.

With the loss of Johnson, he becomes the fourth player from the 2018 recruiting class to have already left the program. Four-star wide receiver Jalen Hall showed up for spring football in 2018 but left the program days later. Four-star running back Jamal Elliott went through spring football but then left the team to be closer to his hometown of Durham, North Carolina. This week Cristobal announced that three-star wide receiver and redshirt freshman J.J. Tucker was away from the team and that he couldn't say one way or the other if Tucker would return or be gone for good.

This story will be updated.