Virginia Football Fall Camp Injury Report

Full injury report from UVA football fall camp, including some good news and some bad news for the Cavaliers

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
Aug 22, 2022 6:27 PM EDT

In this story:

Virginia funning back Amaad Foston practicing. — Sophomore running back Amaad Foston is out for the season with a torn ACL.
Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics

The Virginia football team completed fall camp on Monday and, after one day off for the beginning of classes on Tuesday, the Cavaliers will begin game preparations for their season opener against Richmond on September 3rd.

Following the final practice of fall camp, Tony Elliott spoke with the media and provided updates on several of the team's injured players, which we have summarized below:

Senior offensive lineman Jonathan Leech, the only player on the roster who has started games on the UVA offensive line prior to this season, did not practice on Monday and was seen with a cast on his left arm. Elliott reported that he received good news on Leech's injury after it initially appeared that he may miss significant time. "Leech - that doesn't look like it's gonna be long term," Elliott said on Monday. "I'm hoping that it's a couple weeks. He may be ready game week, or towards the end of game week for Richmond. He may not be able to play, but we anticipate that we'll get him back pretty soon... I don't think it's gonna linger all season."

Garett Tujague has had a challenging time with his UVA offensive line throughout camp, as various injuries have prevented the team from fielding the same starting five in any two consecutive practices. There is hope among the coaching staff that that will change as the team sets its sights on Richmond.

"A lot of guys have worked and a lot of guys have worked together," UVA offensive coordinator Des Kitchings said of the offensive line. "But we just want to have five guys working together over the next eight, nine days before that first game."

"Offensive line-wise, I think we're in decent shape by the time we get to the game," Elliott said.

Sophomore running back Amaad Foston has suffered a torn ACL and is expected to miss the entire season. "It sucks for Foston, to lose him with an ACL," Elliott said. "He's already had surgery, I saw him earlier today, he's doing well."

Sophomore wide receiver Malachi Fields, who broke his foot and had surgery in July, missed the entirety of fall camp. Tony Elliott says there is a chance Fields could return sometime late in the season. "I think Malachi [Fields] - we still got a plan that he may not get back till late, if he gets back at all with his foot."

Senior defensive back Coen King went down with an elbow injury during Virginia's scrimmage at Scott Stadium on August 13th, but there is hope that he will only be out for a short period of time. Elliott says, "we'll get him back at some point."

Fifth-year running back Ronnie Walker Jr., who suffered an injury back in early April that caused him to miss all of spring football and the entirety of fall camp, is reportedly ahead of schedule on his return and could be cleared even before the season opener against Richmond.

"Ronnie Walker's coming back," said running backs coach Keith Gaither. "He'll be cleared by next week. He's starting to get work in during practice." Walker had previously been given a timetable of a late-September return, but it looks like he will be back well before then.

"I think we'll get most of the guys that are banged up short-term back by the time we kickoff for Richmond, but we do have a couple of long-term guys... I don't anticipate anybody being ahead of schedule other than Ronnie," said Tony Elliott. "So I anticipate that we'll have most of our guys barring any situations that come up between now and Richmond."

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