Updated 6 p.m. Sept. 7 with a new response from Notre Dame.

SOUTH BEND – A former Notre Dame football player is suing the university for negligence, alleging that results of a spinal scan were concealed from him and that he should not have been allowed to continue playing.

Instead, former linebacker Douglas Randolph alleges, he played the entire 2015 season. Afterward, his complaint said, Randolph was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and has been told he has potentially permanent nerve damage in his neck.

The complaint, filed this month in St. Joseph Circuit Court, names coach Brian Kelly among the defendants. It does not specify an amount being sought for damages.

Notre Dame issued a statement Thursday expressing confidence "that the allegations made in this lawsuit are baseless."

The full statement from Paul J. Browne, vice president for public affairs and communications:

"We will respond in full to these claims in court, but what we can say with certainty is that nothing is more important to Notre Dame than the safety and well-being of our students. With that in mind, we believe our athletics doctors and trainers are second to none and we are completely confident that these health-care professionals provided proper medical care to the plaintiff in this case. We are equally confident that the allegations made in this lawsuit are baseless."

Randolph alleges that he was hit during a practice drill in September 2015 and “suffered numbness in his upper extremities.” The lawsuit says he informed trainer Rob Hunt of his symptoms and that Hunt dismissed the complaint. Hunt, the lawsuit said, pulled Randolph out of practice for two minutes before returning him to full participation.

The lawsuit states that Randolph’s symptoms continued after every impact he experienced on the field.

He had an MRI, and Hunt and a team doctor told Randolph it was safe for him to continue playing, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit says neither the imaging nor the results of the scan were given to Randolph. Randolph says his symptoms worsened during the season.

"If he had been told the truth about the results of this MRI scan, his football career would have ended on that date and all subsequent injuries and permanent damage he has endured would have never occurred,” the lawsuit says.

At one point, Randolph said he was in so much distress that a team doctor prescribed an anti-inflammatory steroid for “muscle strain” in his neck. But he said he experienced side effects such as “irritability, difficulty focusing, and difficulty sleeping, as well as extreme bouts of aggressive behavior, which ultimately forced him to discontinue the use of the painkiller” in October 2015.

Brian Kelly said he was "surprised" by the lawsuit during his Thursday evening news conference.

"I'm there every day, I know the kind of quality healthcare that we provide," Kelly said, as athletics director Jack Swarbrick observed from the back of the room. "We've got outstanding doctors, trainers. That’s our mission here is to provide the very best healthcare to our student athletes and whatever is in their best interest. I think that’s important to note as well.

"I think I'd stick with that statement that was issued today. Again, the rest is litigation so I wouldn’t have any comment."

During the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1, 2016, Randolph alleges that he “suffered complete numbness in all four extremities.” He informed Hunt, who told him to “continue playing” and “get back in the game,” according to the complaint. Randolph recorded one tackle in a 44-28 loss.

Soon after that game, Randolph went for a second MRI scan and was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, "a narrowing of the spaces within your spine, which can put pressure on the nerves that travel through the spine," according to the Mayo Clinic's website.

Randolph sought a third opinion from a doctor not affiliated with Notre Dame. The complaint says the doctor told Randolph he has “possible, if not probable, permanent nerve damage in his neck that had occurred as a result of continuing to play college football” after his initial injury. In mid-February 2016, team doctors said he was no longer cleared to play football.

“When I went to the doctor’s appointment and they all told me I couldn’t play anymore, I honestly wasn’t sad,” Randolph told the South Bend Tribune for a story published in May of this year. “I had a suspicion going into it because I could just tell something was very off. But this didn’t change my path at all. All along I had used football as a vehicle to achieve the most that I could.”

In March 2016, Kelly announced Randolph’s playing career was over and he would be a medical hardship, meaning he would stay on scholarship. He also remained part of the football program as a student assistant for the 2016 season, working with the defensive line.

In the lawsuit, Randolph alleges that since the 2015 season, he has suffered from “sometimes incapacitating pain, constant muscle strain, daily headaches and difficulty focusing, as well as continued numbness, tingling sensations throughout his upper and lower extremities and difficulty with muscle control.”

Randolph was a four-star recruit in Notre Dame’s 2013 class. He was the No. 11 linebacker in the country, and No. 9 player in the state of Virginia, according to Rivals.com. Originally committed to Stanford, Randolph ultimately flipped to the Irish.

He made six tackles in 19 career games at Notre Dame.

Randolph graduated from Notre Dame this spring with a degree in management consulting from the Mendoza College of Business and works for R.W. Baird, a private wealth management firm in Milwaukee.