Nick Saban gives Alabama injury update

Alabama head coach Nick Saban gave injury updates for his team in a virtual press conference during the Crimson Tide’s Media Day on Sunday. During the Zoom conference with reporters, Saban spoke at length about multiple topics. Included in his comments was the injury status of running back Trey Sanders and safety Malachi Moore.

Alabama injury updates

Saban started by mentioning that defensive lineman LaBryan Ray has been battling a groin injury and has not returned fully yet.

“I think LaBryan Ray has a pretty significant groin injury that he kinda got toward the end of the summer that may keep him out for a couple of weeks,” stated Saban via 247 Sports.

Speaking about a return timetable for LaBryan entering his fifth season with Alabama, Saban said, “Hopefully we’ll get him back and he’ll be confident in his ability to play. We’ll just wait to see, day to day, how that goes.”

Saban went on to detail the status of Trey Sanders and Malachi Moore as they return from injuries as well.

“Trey Sanders I think is getting very close to being 100 percent,” Saban reports via 247 Sports. Their concerns with Sanders returning is how he’ll react when participating in full activities and live game situations. After four games with Alabama in 2020, Sanders suffered multiple injuries as a result of a car accident which ended his season.

“The issue always with a player who has a significant injury like he had is how’s he going to respond when he actually starts having to play football and gets hit and has to hit other people. That’s an unknown that we’ll just have to wait and see because we’ve only been in shorts and helmets so far so we’ve had very limited contact,” Saban details. “But we’re pleased with his progress, I’m pleased with his attitude. I see his burst in acceleration coming back and he’s been able to do it and repeat it on a day-to-day basis without having issue.”

His teammate Malachi Moore is also hopeful to return to full capacity soon, after missing both 2020 College Football Playoff games that Alabama played in. Moore has been recovering from a back injury that sidelined him to end the year.

“Malachi Moore has practiced each and every day so far. He did all summer long,” Saban updated via 247 Sports. Saban continued with the team’s concerns about aggravating the injury as he returns to full contact, but they remain optimistic that it will not bother him.

“So we’re hopeful that he won’t have any injuries but as we all know, those of us — including me — that have had some issues with their back, that sometimes these things reoccur with really — sometimes hard to figure what the reason for this is. What did I do? How did it happen? Why is it hurting again? So you never know about that part of it but so far he’s done a really, really good job.”

Saban remembers legendary Bobby Bowden

On a somber note during his press conference, Saban took time to reflect on his time with the legendary head coach, Bobby Bowden. Bowden passed away Sunday at the age of 91, and Chandler Vessels of On3 Sports details a story here where Saban recalled how Bowden was there for him in a time of need.

Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images