Eli Drinkwitz shares Isaac Thompson, Sam Horn will miss remainder of spring

Fresh off an 11-win season with Missouri, Eli Drinkwitz has to start over. The 2024 season will be a fresh one for the Tigers, hoping to improve on what they accomplished just a year ago. Everything will begin with spring practice but before then Drinkwitz had some injury updates to provide.

Missouri will be without defensive back Isaac Thompson and quarterback Sam Horn throughout all of spring practice. Thompson suffered his injury last summer and is continuing to miss an extended period of time. Horn’s problem, on the other hand, is rather new.

“There are two players that will be out because of injury,” Drinkwitz said on Monday. “Issac Thompson and Sam Horn will miss the remainder of the spring. Issac is recovering from his injury in the summer. Sam had to have Tommy John surgery.”

Tommy John surgery is not usually something you hear when talking about football players. Well, Horn is a baseball player as well. A torn UCL is going to keep him out of both sports for quite some time, being a huge loss for Mizzou football and baseball.

Drinkwitz says the road to recovery has already begun for Horn but the road can only end one way. Having Horn healthy enough to perform at a high level in both sports is when Drinkwtiz will feel comfortable getting him back on the field.

“The great thing about Tommy John surgery is that it’s an operation that is going to allow for full recovery,” Drinkwitz said. “And that timetable is unknown. But our goal for Sam Horn is to be 100% healthy when he comes back.

“Healthy for him means throwing 96 off the bump and throwing 50-yard touchdowns. So, when he is both of those, we will have him ready to play football for us. First and foremost, he is a unique football and baseball talent. We’ve got to get him healthy.”

Horn competed with Brady Cook for the starting role last season but wound up playing in just three games. He threw for 54 yards and a touchdown in the 2023 opener against South Dakota.

As for Thompson, he was a highly-rated DB coming out of high school. He has only played in two games throughout his career though and took a redshirt season in 2023. Hopefully, he will be able to get back healthy in time for the fall and get onto the field.