Alabama Football G05 at Ole Miss 2014
Alabama running back Kenyan Drake (17) gives a thumbs up after his injury during the second quarter of the Alabama at Ole Miss football game, Saturday, October 4, 2014, at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Miss.
(Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- A few injuries proved costly for Alabama in the 23-17 loss at Ole Miss. All three will continue to impact Alabama moving forward.
Kenyan Drake will be lost for the season with his broken leg suffered Saturday. He had surgery already along with linebacker Denzel Devall, coach Nick Saban said Monday.
Devall's ankle injury was "not probably as bad," Saban said. They are hoping to get him back in three to four weeks. The starter was injured on the first series of the game.
Center Ryan Kelly will also be out for a little while. Saban said his sprained knee will take "at least a couple of weeks," to heal.
"All of these guys have been really good players for us and they made a great contribution to our team in many different ways," Saban said. "As always, when you lose players, it creates opportunities for other players."
With Drake, Saban said the injury was similar to the broken bone running back Derrick Henry suffered in spring practice in 2013. Saban said he suffered a similar injury when he was in school too. He said it would be at least eight-to-10 weeks before he "could even think about playing football again."
Saban gave a basic description of how the medical procedure works after the injury.
"They break your leg and your ankle is dislocated and you actually pin the two together," Saban said. That's not a lot of medical expertise, there but. I think that would be a better question for the medical staff."
Another player who remains out is reserve offensive lineman Grant Hill. He missed all of last week with an illness.
"We're hopeful to get him back at some point this week," Saban said. "We're kind of leaving that pretty much up to him and the medical staff to make that decision.