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Felix Okpara expected to be available for No. 6 Tennessee at No. 7 Texas A&M

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•about 13 hours•

GrantRamey

Felix Okpara
USA TODAY IMAGES/Angelina Alcantar

Tennessee junior center Felix Okpara is expected to be available to play Saturday at No. 7 Texas A&M in the Noon Eastern Time game on ESPN at Reed Arena in College Station.

Okpara was off the SEC Injury Report Saturday morning after being listed as questionable Friday night. He’s dealing with ann ankle/foot injury that initially happened before the Kentucky game last week.

Okpara did not practice with the Vols Friday at Food City Center in Knoxville. He was listed as probable for last week’s game at Kentucky due to the ankle injury.

Felix Okpara this season: 7.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.8 blocks, 24.7 minutes per game

Okpara is averaging 7.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 24.7 minutes per game, starting all 26 games this season. 

The Vols did not have a midweek game this week, giving banged up players a chance to rest.

“You’d like to give them rest obviously,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said before practice Friday, “but for us, with the injuries that we had, the ones that, whether it’s a calf strain, a big toe, those things that are hard to get right. A week won’t do it, but it helps and I think, hopefully it’s helped us as we get back into it now.”

Tennessee rallied from down 16 points in the first half against Vanderbilt last Saturday at Food City Center to win 81-76. Igor Milicic Jr. was listed as probable on the Friday night injury report before that game due to a calf strain.

Barnes said after the win over Vanderbilt that Milicic had not practiced during the week leading up to the game, which also included the 75-64 loss at Kentucky on February 11. 

Tennessee has been dealing with injuries since November

The injury bug initially bit the Vols in November when sophomore forward JP Estrella had season-ending foot surgery and sophomore wing Cam Carr had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his thumb. Carr transferred out of the program on December 23, landing at Baylor last month. 

Both senior point guard Zakai Zeigler and Milicic missed the 64-44 win over Florida on February 1, with Zeigler out with a right knee injury and Milicic ruled out due to an illness. Both players returned for the follow game, a win over Missouri.

Tennessee is back on the road Tuesday at LSU and hosts No. 4 Alabama on March 1 in Knoxville. The Vols close the regular-season schedule with a road game at Ole Miss on March 5 and Senior Day against South Carolina on March 8 in Knoxville.

“The biggest (focus of the) week for us was trying to get guys healthy,” Barnes said. “We had to change our schedule the way we originally put it in, because we just had guys that, some injuries that, to be quite honest, I’m not sure they’ll get 100% better because of where they are. 

“So we’ve tried to manage that more this week than anything else.” 

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