Eli Drinkwitz reveals Brady Cook, Luther Burden on injury report
The Missouri injury report dealt a significant blow to the team’s hopes on Tuesday when coach Eli Drinkwitz revealed one season-ending injury, as well as a few others that could impact key players.
Linebacker Chad Bailey will miss the rest of the season, while receiver Luther Burden and quarterback Brady Cook both appeared on the injury report.
“Chad has had a reoccurrence of that injury that he had in the summer,” Drinkwitz said. “We’re going to do what’s best interest of him, so he’ll be out the remainder of the season. He’s going to continue to help our team as best he can with being in meetings and helping coach the linebackers, serving them with leadership and captaincy.
“But he’ll be out the rest of the year. He’s going to go get a second opinion on what’s the next step for him. Hopefully we can get him healthy enough to pursue his dream of playing at the next level.”
Bailey played in five games after missing time at the beginning of the season. He tallied 17 tackles, a tackle for a loss, a sack, a forced fumble and a pass breakup.
The Tigers will have to move on without him.
It’ll be a lot more difficult to do so if some of the other issues littering the injury report aren’t minor. Burden is one of the best receivers in the nation, so getting him back will be paramount.
Drinkwitz ran through the rest of the injury report.
“Realus George will be questionable this week,” he said. “He got dinged up on the second to last play. Luther Burden will be questionable this week. Theo Wease would be probable, Brady Cook will be probable. Cody Schrader will be probable. Ennis Rakestraw will be probable. All those guys are dealing with different things that they’ve kind of battled through.
“I think Luther and Realus would be the two that I’m the most concerned about right now.”
Burden has had a major impact this season, recording 64 catches for 958 yards and seven touchdowns. He’s also run five times for 11 yards.
The Tigers won’t have a ton of time to get him healthy and off the injury report.
On tap is a Saturday showdown with a ranked Tennessee squad, a game set to kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.