Smart confident Georgia can be fully healthy by Clemson

Georgia’s been a banged up football team as of late. The Bulldogs were down several key players for the first scrimmage of the preseason last Saturday and suffered another big blow this week with the news of injuries to Tykee Smith and Darnell Washington. Despite the recent stretch keeping Ron Courson and the medical staff busy in the training room, Kirby Smart is optimistic he’ll have a healthy group come the season opener in two weeks.

“Yeah, we’re hopeful to get all those guys back soon,” Smart said on Saturday when he met with reporters after Georgia’s second scrimmage. “That’s the plan really on all the guys that are injured. We don’t have an injury that’s got us out for a long amount of time. We hope to get all those guys back. Every one of them was day-to-day and some of them you mentioned are practicing now. Each one of them is a different situation, but I expect to be full tilt when Clemson comes, when it comes time to play them. We had more guys healthy today than we did in the last scrimmage. So we’re in good position there.”

Among those who did not participate in last week’s scrimmage were Warren Ericson (hand) and Jermaine Burton (ankle). Both were back on the practice field for today’s scrimmage. Kearis Jackson (knee) was limited in what he could do last week and the same was true today.

“Jermaine, Kearis, both of them went today and practiced,” Smart said. “We were pretty much full load there at wide receiver, and those guys all got to practice and compete and get better. It was good to have Jermaine out there because he had missed some time in our camp and he missed some time in spring practice as well.”

As for some of the players that did not participate today, however Smart thinks could return by September 4, Georgia was without both Smith (foot) and Washington (foot). Earlier in the week, Georgia released a statement from Smart stating that each of them was undergoing treatment with “an excellent prognosis” and a status of “day to day.”

John FitzPatrick also missed the scrimmage, his second straight absence, as he deals with a foot sprain while Jalen Kimber (shoulder) participated in a non-contact jersey a week after missing the workout entirely. Dominick Blaylock (knee) continues to rehab after tearing his ACL last fall and was active today while Quay Walker (undisclosed) was limited.

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