No. 6 Tennessee lists Felix Okpara on injury report for Saturday's game at No. 7 Texas A&M
Tennessee junior center Felix Okpara is questionable for Saturday afternoon’s game at Texas A&M, according to Friday night’s SEC Injury Report. Okpara did not practice with the Vols Friday at Food City Center in Knoxville due to a foot/ankle issue.
Okpara was listed as probable for last week’s game at Kentucky due to an ankle injury.
No. 6 Tennessee (21-5, 8-5 SEC) and No. 7 Texas A&M (20-6, 9-4) are scheduled for a Noon Eastern Time start on ESPN at Reed Arena in College Station.
A pregame injury update will be issued at approximately 10 a.m. ET on Saturday.
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.
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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.”
