Nick Saban provides Eli Ricks, Jahmyr Gibbs injury updates before Austin Peay game

Alabama is readying for its final non-conference test of the season, set to face Austin Peay this weekend before the Iron Bowl a week later. Coach Nick Saban provided Eli Ricks and Jahmyr Gibbs injury updates on Wednesday, ahead of the game.

Gibbs suffered an ankle injury in the team’s 30-24 win over Ole Miss and didn’t play much in the second half. Ricks, meanwhile, left the game on the first play after suffering a head injury.

“They’re kind of day-to-day in terms of how they’re doing, what they’re doing,” Saban said Wednesday after practice. “We won’t be able to make that determination until closer to the game.”

Gibbs has run for 774 yards and six touchdowns this season on 119 carries, while also adding 40 catches for 370 yards and three touchdowns.

He’s really helped power the offense, particularly in games where Bryce Young hasn’t been quite as sharp due to a shoulder injury he sustained midway through the season.

Ricks, on the other hand, had risen to the top of the depth chart at cornerback during the season and helped steady the secondary. He has played in eight games this season and recorded six tackles, as well as four pass breakups.

Eli Ricks, Jahmyr Gibbs injury updates follow an earlier update

The news Saban provided Wednesday evening with his Eli Ricks and Jahmyr Gibbs injury update wasn’t the only one he shared on the day. Earlier in the day on an SEC teleconference call he addressed another injury.

Sophomore linebacker Kendrick Blackshire hasn’t played the last four weeks and the Alabama head coach revealed that is due to a wrist injury.

Saban said Blackshire had pins put in his wrist as a result of the injury and wasn’t able to say for certain when he might return. With just two games remaining in the regular season, though, it casts doubt whether he’ll be back before the bowl game.

“He may be back next week, maybe not,” Saban said. “I don’t know. He’s got a wrist injury that they had to put pins in, and you’ve gotta hold guys out when that happens to them because if the pins break, you’ve got a real problem. So, until it heals, he’s probably on the shelf.”