Kirby Smart updates DT Jalen Carter's injury situation, bemoans how it happened

Georgia was without star defensive lineman Jalen Carter for the second half Saturday night after a scary-looking low block from a Missouri lineman banged his knee up. Head coach Kirby Smart provided more context into the injury, but downplayed the notion that it was a dirty hit.

“It’s a knee, but I don’t know how bad it is yet. He tried to go back, he couldn’t,” Smart said after the win. “We think it’s an MCL strain, which is probably good news. Tough, too, because it was a tough block, a tough, tough cut block that they do well. He wanted to go back, but he couldn’t go back.”

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Carter was only able to record one tackle before leaving the field. That was more production than he had last week against Kent State, however, as he wasn’t able to put any numbers on the stat sheet. That is due, in part, to Carter dealing with an ankle injury all season and now, the potential MCL issue is just the latest.

Looking ahead, Carter is projected to be one of the top picks in the 2023 NFL Draft. He is in the discussion for being one of the best non-quarterbacks available for selection. While this injury doesn’t seem to have a long-term effect on his healthy, it’s something Smart and the Bulldogs will certainly monitor moving forward.

Carter’s injury was one of several blows to the Georgia defense, though most of which didn’t come through injury, but rather Missouri’s offense keeping the Bulldogs on its heels for the entire game.

Not leading until the eventual game-winning score, Missouri seemed to have every answer to Georgia on both sides of the ball. Getting consecutive stops of defense and breaking big plays offensively on multiple occasions, the nation’s No. 1 team trailed until the final minutes of regulation. Smart chalked the defensive woes up to a slew of banged-up Bulldogs.

“We had a lot of players hurt out there,” Smart said. “Jalen Carter went down, we’ve got guys banged up. Warren Brinson is dealing with a groin, Smael [Mondon] is out for a while, I don’t know how long he was out but there was a series of plays he was out. We had Trezman [Marshall] out there, it feels like he was out on one knee. They fought. The biggest play of the night was probably Malaki Stark’s stop on the 1-yard line. It allowed us to stop them, and we have played good red zone defense. I’ll have to say that.”

With more updates on Carter’s injury timetable likely to come within the week, Georgia will likely have to game-plan without their star defensive lineman as they prepare for Auburn in Athens for Week 6.