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Kirby Smart updates Jalen Carter injury after win over Missouri

Palmber-Thombsby:Palmer Thombs•10/01/22•

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Photo: Tony Walsh

Georgia defensive lineman Jalen Carter left Saturday night’s 26-22 win over Missouri with what Kirby Smart said postgame was a knee injury and is believed to be an MCL sprain. Carter came into the contest already banged up with an ankle injury and went down on a play in the second quarter. He did not return to the game but was walking around on the sidelines, still in pads, during the second half.

“It’s a knee, so I don’t know how bad it is yet,” Smart said in his postgame press conference. “He tried to go back, he couldn’t. We think it’s an MCL sprain which is probably good news. Tough too because it’s a tough, tough block. It’s a tough cut block that they do well. Tough on him, but he wanted to go back, he couldn’t go back.”

Carter, a junior our of Apopka, Fla. and projected first round pick, had one tackle before leaving the game. When he left, Georgia was trailing, but the Bulldogs would overcome a double-digit deficit in the second half to come away victorious over Missouri with Carter watching from the sidelines.

If an MCL sprain is indeed the injury for Carter, it won’t be the first that Georgia has dealt with over the last couple of years. Running back Kendall Milton has had two sprained MCLs during his Georgia career, missing six games with the injury last season. Others have returned in quicker time frames, but as Smart has said several times before, injuries to defensive linemen can be tougher because of the amount of weight that the recovering part body has to support.

Carter, a projected first round pick, is seen as the leader of the Georgia defensive line, a unit that lost three starters from last year’s team to the 2022 NFL Draft. He started the first two games of the season and had a solo tackle in the season-opening win. He added one more, along with a batted pass and three quarterback hurries, in the next game against Samford.

Carter was named a Preseason All-American first-teamer by the Associated Press, the Walter Camp Football Foundation and Athlon Sports on top of All-SEC honors by coaches and media alike. Carter was also included on the preseason watch lists for the Lott Trophy (nation’s top defender), Outland Trophy (nation’s top interior linemen) and Bronko Nagurski Trophy (nation’s top defender).

“Jalen, when he makes his mind up to do something, he has a freakish natural ability,” Smart said on Atlanta area radio about Carter earlier in the season. “He’s one of the most quickest (sic) twitch… it’s like a MIKE linebacker or a really good, athletic inside linebacker playing with his hand down because he can make movements and twists and suddenness, we call it body quickness. He has twitch. When you have that, most linemen can’t recover to that suddenness and twitch that he possesses.”

Georgia returns home to play rival Auburn next week at Sanford Stadium. Kickoff time is slated for 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.

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