Final South Carolina injury report before Missouri game
South Carolina veteran offensive lineman Vershon Lee‘s knee injury is not as bad was first feared but he’ll still miss the Gamecocks’ matchup with Missouri this Saturday, Shane Beamer said Thursday on his weekly Carolina Calls radio show with Todd Ellis.
“He will not play Saturday, Vershon won’t,” Beamer said. “The positive is initially we thought it was gonna be a four-to-six-weeks type thing. Found that out on Sunday night initially, and then we were told initially on Sunday night at practice, that we thought it might be a month-long thing. And it was one of those, you gotta be kidding me. But we found out yesterday that it’s more likely two weeks. I think Vershon would be questionable for next week. And it’s certainly very, very probable for whoever we play after that.”
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Other than the injury to Lee, no doubt another big blow to an o-line riddled with them this season, South Carolina makes the trip to the “other” Columbia in relatively good health.
Running back Mario Anderson (ankle) and linebacker Stone Blanton (thigh bruise) were both dealing with injuries against Florida, but appear to be healing up well.
“We were concerned about Mario after the game. Mario is fine. He’s practiced all week,” Beamer said. “Stone Blanton got banged up in the game. He’s done a little bit more in practice each day this week. He should be good by the time we get to Saturday. So really coming out of the Florida game, because that was a long, hard physical game. Other than Verson, we came out of it in pretty good shape.”
Lee, who made the move from center to right tackle for the first time this year against Florida, exited with a knee injury late in the first half and couldn’t return in the second.
Beamer mentioned Sidney Fugar, Tyshawn Wannamaker and Jakai Moore as options at right tackle for this week with Lee out.
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South Carolina redshirt freshman offensive tackle Cason Henry was injured on the fourth play of the season against North Carolina and has missed every play since but appears to be getting closer to a potential return.
“We’re closer to having Cason Henry back,” Beamer said. “Yesterday, or really Tuesday, we were optimistic or hopeful that he may be able to play this Saturday, actually. He did a little bit of practice this week. He’s not quite ready. And because we’ve had so many linemen get hurt, we’re continuing to try and develop depth with our young guys, and Jatavius Shivers, who’s a true freshman that hasn’t played yet. He’s really had two really good weeks of practice. So we’ll continue to bring him along and see if these guys, because we’re literally at the halfway point of the season, we’ll see who can help us down this last half of the year.”
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South Carolina has been hoping to get wide receiver Juice Wells back at some point this season. The former All-SEC performer has missed three straight games and was highly limited in the first three too.
Beamer said on Wednesday that Wells is out this week.
This Saturday’s matchup with Missouri is set for a 3:30 kickoff in Columbia, Mo. with SEC Network carrying the action.
