Alabama Football's Christian Harris and Evan Neal Remain Questionable for SEC Championship

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Three days before No. 1 Alabama football’s matchup against the No. 7 Florida Gators in Atlanta at the SEC Championship Game, and two of the Crimson Tide’s starters are still questionable for Saturday’s contest.

Sophomores linebacker Christian Harris and offensive lineman Evan Neal are both still questionable as of Wednesday night, Alabama coach Nick Saban said in his weekly press conference.

“We’re hopeful that if [Neal] continues to make progress, he will be available for the game,” Saban said. “Christian Harris did practice today. I think the thing with Christian Harris will be does he think he’s functional enough to go out there and do his job. But he did everything in practice today so we’ll just have to wait and kind of see.

“With these injuries, it’s kind of day to day. How sore does he get? Is he going to make more progress tomorrow? So in both those cases, I would say those guys are questionable to some degree, but both have a chance to be ready for the game on Saturday.”

Neal sat out of the Crimson Tide’s matchup this past weekend at Arkansas, reportedly for contact tracing purposes after redshirt-freshman offensive lineman Amari Kight tested positive for COVID-19. While the offensive line did a solid job against the Razorbacks, the Gators’ defensive line poses a much more serious threat in the SEC title game on Saturday night.

For Harris, he was removed from the game against Arkansas in the first half after suffering an apparent shoulder injury. While an official diagnosis was never given to the media, Saban mentioned after the game this past Saturday afternoon that Harris was going to have an MRI done on Sunday to find the root cause of the problem.

While both players are still questionable for Saturday’s game, the fact that Neal is making progress and Harris practiced on Wednesday does provide some hope that both will be on the field against Florida this weekend.

Saban also provided an update on junior wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, who has been out for the Crimson Tide since suffering a severe ankle injury against Tennessee back on Oct. 24.

While Saban reported that Waddle's recovery is going very well, his status is still up-in-the-air regarding whether he can make a return to the gridiron before the end of the season.

"His rehab is going great," Saban said. "He’s out of a cast, he’s out of a boot, he walks, he’s running on a treadmill. I think he’s making good progress day-to-day; he’s not practicing.

"[...] We haven’t ruled out the fact that as he continues to develop that you know, I think he’s hopeful that he can come back and play and we’d love to see him come back and play at some point but it's certainly not now."