Tony Elliott, Billy Kemp, and Grant Misch lead the Virginia Cavaliers onto the field at Scott Stadium ahead of UVA's season opener against Richmond. — Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics

Virginia Football Injury Report: Antonio Clary, Billy Kemp, Coen King

See the latest injury updates on Antonio Clary, Billy Kemp, and Coen King ahead of Virginia's game at Duke

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
Sep 27, 2022 3:32 PM EDT

In this story:

Virginia continues ACC play with another road matchup at Duke on Saturday night. In his weekly press conference on Tuesday afternoon, UVA head coach Tony Elliott provided updates on the injury status of Antonio Clary, Billy Kemp IV, and Coen King for the Duke game.

Senior safety Antonio Clary missed the games against Old Dominion and Syracuse with a "stinger", a common football injury in the neck/shoulder area in which the main concern is nerve protection. Clary was day-to-day last week and Elliott was hoping that he would be ready to play at Syracuse last Friday, but he was not cleared to play on gameday. But, the good news is that Elliott expects Clary to be back on the field at Duke this weekend.

"We were hoping with the stinger issue that he was going to have enough strength and be back to where he was cleared and it was going to be a gameday decision," Elliott said of Clary not playing at Syracuse. "And so we traveled him anticipating that we may get positive news and the doctor just said it's not where it needs to be. But the reports are... that we anticipate that he'll be be at full strength. He had a follow up appointment today - haven't heard the results - but we're anticipating that he's going to be ready to go."

Fifth-year slot receiver Billy Kemp also missed the last two games due to the lingering effects of an illness that Tony Elliott has now revealed to be a kidney problem. Elliott reported that Kemp was cleared to play late last week, but that it was his call to hold Kemp out of the game to make sure that he was protected as he had not practiced in over a week. It is expected that Kemp will be a full participant in practice this week and will be available for the game at Duke on Saturday.

"Billy's back. He's back this week," Elliott said. "It was more so my call, last week, than anything. He had went to the doctor on Wednesday and was cleared, but he hadn't practiced in a week and a half, hadn't played. You're talking about a kidney issue with a reaction to some sickness that he had before. And I just didn't want to put him in a situation where he takes a shot on that kidney and we don't know, so he got cleared on Wednesday/Thursday-ish. And I just decided with us traveling, let him take the rest of the weekend to rest, make sure we're fully in the clear with the kidney. But he's back flying around. Excited to get him back going."

Senior defensive back Coen King made his first start of the season against ODU after missing the first two weeks with an elbow injury. Unfortunately, just as he made his return, King went down with a sprained MCL that held him out of the Syracuse game and will likely cause him to miss a few more weeks. He is not listed on the depth chart for the Duke game.

"You're limited to 80 guys on the travel roster and it was a situation where there was no way he [Coen King] was going to play," Elliott said on King not being listed on the depth chart his week. "He hasn't been able to practice yet. He's been in a yellow jersey working out on the side so we're hoping it's nothing major. Just a sprain to the MCL and that's one of those deals - it depends upon the guy. That could be a two-week, that could be a four-week. It just depends upon how quickly those guys can heal and what their pain tolerance is. So I anticipate that Coen will be out again this week.

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