Five Georgia players out/limited for spring practice due to injury
ATHENS, Ga. — Spring practice is here for the Georgia Bulldogs. Kirby Smart‘s eighth team will get things started on Tuesday. He began his press conference around noon and was up front about the team’s injury situation.
Five players will be out for spring drills according to the two-time National Championship head coach. Junior safety Dan Jackson is one of those players. He suffered a broken bone in his foot last season and had surgery to repair it. He will be out for at least the start of spring practice and maybe longer.
Second-year running back Andrew Paul is also out. He suffered a torn ACL during preseason camp — back in August of 2022. He is not yet fully cleared but will participate in some non-contact portions of practice.
Smart told reporters that head athletic trainer Ron Courson has compared Paul’s current status to that of Nick Chubb in spring of 2016. He’ll be able to do almost everything but 11-on-11 work and the staff feels good about him for the start of fall camp.
Then there are three players who had surgery this offseason. Each of those procedures were on the shoulder. Marvin Jones Jr. is one of those players. He battled a torn labrum all of the 2022 season and was limited both in practice and game reps. Jones had the surgery a couple of months ago and won’t be cleared until preseason camp.
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Jalon Walker has a similar issue and will be out until preseason camp. Walker played both inside linebacker and outside linebacker in 2022. He had a blocked punt against Kent State in September and pitched in at outside linebacker for the College Football Playoff run.
Freshman early enrollee Joshua Miller is also out for the spring. The 2023 signee arrived at Georgia with a shoulder injury that needed surgery. He won’t be able to get it going during his first spring but is expected to be back for the start of preseason camp.
Smart went on to give a lot of credit to Courson and his staff for the Bulldogs’ health this spring. Five players being limited or out this spring is the fewest the eighth-year head coach can remember and he feels comfortable about the team’s depth.
