Zy Alexander, Chris Hilton injury updates: Brian Kelly shares status of LSU players vs. South Alabama

Heading into a final non-conference game of the season against South Alabama on Saturday, LSU has two key players that are working through injuries: Defensive back Zy Alexander and wideout Chris Hilton.

Head coach Brian Kelly shared brief updates on the pair of playmakers on Thursday. As of Thursday afternoon, Hilton was in a better spot to play and perform than Alexander was, Kelly said.

“Zy is questionable,” Kelly said of the concussed cornerback. “He’s going through the protocol so it’s hard to take him out of that protocol until we get through it. But he’s making progress through it, so we’ll leave him as questionable.”

Hilton, Kelly said, is likely to play but the extent of his role and impact is still a bit unclear.

“Chris is probable but, again, we’re bringing him back from a long layoff, so I think we just see how he goes when we get out there on Saturday,” Kelly said.

On Tuesday, Kelly had addressed Alexander’s status and had offered a similar assessment to the one he gave on Thursday.

“Right now, we would list him as questionable, but that could change,” Kelly said earlier in the week. “We don’t have to get into that reporting, because it’s not an SEC game, but I would say he’s questionable right now. We’ll see how he feels tomorrow but we’ve got some flexibility there.”

Alexander left LSU’s Week 4 game against UCLA with an apparent head injury and was quickly taken to the locker room.

Hilton made his first appearance of the season against UCLA as he comes back from an ankle injury, but didn’t make a catch or any other statistical impact.

If fully healthy and in the lineup, Hilton is expected to be one of LSU’s primary pass catchers.

LSU lost its best defender to a season-ending injury

The Tigers lost star defender Harold Perkins to a season-ending injury. It’s an injury that has many people concerned that he’s now played his last game for LSU.

Those concerns are born from the fact that Perkins is draft-eligible. However, when Kelly was asked about his star player’s future, he pushed back on answering, explaining that he still has time to make a decision and it’s too soon to know.The video player is currently playing an ad.

“I don’t think any of those decisions are made,” Kelly said. “Way too soon for him or his family to have made any kind of declaration whether this is his last game or not. I think they’re just trying to get ahold of the surgery and the rehab associated with it.”

Perkins left the UCLA game with an apparent knee injury that was later reported as a torn ACL. With that, his 2024 season came to an end.

“He’ll take all that into consideration and then when it’s time to make a decision, he’ll make a decision,” Kelly said. “Certainly, he has plenty of time before he has to make that decision.”