South Carolina spring game week injury report
South Carolina football worked through its second scrimmage of the spring on Saturday and as always the flip side of a full-contact practice is the increased chance of injury.
Unfortunately, that ended up being the case for Gamecock redshirt freshman defensive back Zahbari Sandy, who tore his ACL in the scrimmage, head coach Shane Beamer said Tuesday.
“Kind of a non- — I wouldn’t say non-contact — he was engaged with a receiver that was blocking him and (the knee) just kind of gave out on him as well,” Beamer said. “Hate that for him, he was coming off an injury and then got back out there. But like I told him on Saturday night when I talked to him, he’s gonna be a really good player for us. He’s still young and he’ll be back as soon as possible, but hate that for Zahbari. But other than that, we came out of the scrimmage fairly injury-free.”
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The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder from Washington, D.C. played in two games for Carolina as a true freshman last season and did not record any stats.
Beamer was asked if there’s any chance Sandy could return this season.
“I would say that’s doubtful,” he said. “I wouldn’t say no. I mean, if you remember last year, we had an injury in the spring game. And we were optimistic that we were going to be able to get him back before the season, and we weren’t able to. So, yeah. So, hopeful, not optimistic.”
Beamer added that there are some guys with short-term injuries who will miss the spring game on Saturday but the specifics will be more clear later this week.
“I’ll have a better idea really probably tomorrow,” Beamer said. “There’s some guys that I would say absolutely aren’t. You know, guys that have been out for a while now with injuries. Obviously, Rocket (Sanders), we’ve said all along. Juju (McDowell), those guys. We’ll see. We’ve got some guys that got back out there today for the first time.
“We’ve got some guys that didn’t do anything. But we’re hopeful we’ll be able to do something on Thursday. So, no one that I say right now, other than the guys that have already been announced as long term, there’s no one new. But I’ll have a better idea once we sit down as a staff and kind of see where guys are as we go into the rest of the week.”
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Beamer previously indicated that Sanders, McDowell and Bradley Dunn, linebacker Mo Kaba, and redshirt freshman wide receiver C.J. Adams are out for the rest of the spring.
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Sanders, the former All-SEC transfer from Arkansas, is still recovering from offseason shoulder surgery.
McDowell suffered a collarbone injury a couple of weeks ago while diving for a pass in practice, while Dunn is dealing with an ankle injury.
Kaba is still recovering from knee surgery after suffering a torn ACL in the season opener last year.
Adams suffered what Beamer called “a little bit of a spring break injury” to his finger.
Beamer said last week that Nick Emmanwori, JT Geer, Tonka Hemingway, Brady Hunt, Debron Gatling were among the players dealing with short-term issues.
South Carolina will practice again on Thursday and Friday before Saturday night’s Garnet and Black Spring Game which is set for 7 p.m. at Williams-Brice Stadium.
