Rocket Sanders' Injury Sounds Worse Than We Thought

Razorbacks' top running back apparently has something taking longer than thought

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Sep 18, 2023 5:14 PM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — When Raheim "Rocket" Sanders was injured against Western Carolina in the opener, Arkansas coach Sam Pittman thought he would be out a week or two. We didn't discover anything much deeper than that. Everyone assumed they would hold him out against Kent State the next week, which is what happened.

When it was announced last week he would miss the BYU game the other night, we still didn't know the injury may be worse than anybody thought. Not that some people were speculating behind the scenes it might be much longer. Now SEC play is starting Saturday and Rocket won't be in the game at Baton Rouge.

"No, I mean really no is the answer," Pittman said in his Monday afternoon press conference. "I don't know if he's going to be able to play or not. In all honesty it's probably too early to tell on that injury. We're going to have him out there a little bit today and kind of see where he's at, but to be honest with you the answer is probably no at this point. Not no he's not going to play, but no we just don't know."

It's potentially really bad for a team that everyone hoped was counting heavily on a running game that looked to be one of the strengths now has the guy at the top of the list on a week-to-week basis ... if it's really that good. The backups aren't bad with AJ Green and Rashod Dubinion. We saw that in the 38-31 loss to BYU, but doing without Rocket will be an unexpected blow.