It’s game week. Here’s why Clemson is changing its injury report policy for 2020
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney is known to be honest about injuries his players are dealing with.
Swinney made it clear heading into the 2020 football season that he won’t be as forthcoming with an injury report this year due to COVID-19.
If a player has to miss a game because of a sprained ankle, a bruised shoulder or COVID-19, Clemson will just announce a player as “unavailable for the game” throughout this season due to privacy concerns.
Swinney might disclose who will be unavailable and available when speaking to reporters leading up to that week’s game — or he might not. Clemson will provide a list of players who are available and unavailable on game days.
The Tigers open the 2020 season Saturday at Wake Forest.
“Any time we have a long-term injury, I’ll make that very clear. But we’re going to have some guys that are day-to-day, week-to-week battling injuries. We’re going to have some guys that are on the COVID protocol, whether they had it or are quarantined, close contact, whatever that is,” Swinney said. “So we’re just going to keep it simple and say ‘Hey, here’s who’s available, who’s not available.’ And we’re going to get the guys ready to play.”
For this week’s game, the only players who have officially been ruled out are defensive end Xavier Thomas, receiver Justyn Ross and tight end Luke Price. Clemson is hoping to get Thomas back for a portion of this season after he battled COVID-19 and strep throat this summer. Ross and Price are both out for the year after suffering season-ending injuries.
Starting defensive end Justin Foster and backup running back Lyn-J Dixon are among the other players who missed time during fall camp. Their status for this weekend has yet to be revealed.
The loss of Foster for an extended period of time would be a big one for the Tigers as Thomas, Foster and Logan Rudolph split time starting at defensive end last season. Rudolph gave up football this offseason to focus on acting.
“Justin has been here every day and is working hard and getting better,” Swinney said last week. “He has been limited but hopefully he’s making some good progress and will be with us here soon.”
Clemson also revealed last week that it had 18 positive COVID-19 tests in its athletics department, including 14 student-athletes across five sports, but it did not provide a sport-by-sport breakdown with seasons getting underway. Any football players who tested positive last week, as well as their close contacts, could miss Saturday’s game because of quarantine.
Clemson will test staff and players Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays this season and will receive results the following day. Players who test negative on Wednesday will be allowed to travel with the team on Friday. If a player is positive after a Friday test, they will be sent home on Saturday when results are received.
Swinney expects other teams around the country to follow the same guidelines in terms of what they reveal about injuries.
“I just think that’s the simplest way to go about it. And if that’s what most everybody else is going to do, then it doesn’t make sense for me to release an injury report on Wednesday. So we’ll just kind of fall in line there,” Swinney said. “This is a very unique year.”
Clemson vs. Wake Forest game, TV details
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Truist Field in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
TV: ABC
Line: Clemson by 32.5
This story was originally published September 8, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "It’s game week. Here’s why Clemson is changing its injury report policy for 2020."
