Injury update as South Carolina enters second bye week

South Carolina enters its second bye week of the 2024 slate as a relatively healthy team as the Gamecocks prepare for a five-game grind to complete the regular season.

South Carolina hasn’t been without injuries but it’s been a far cry from the rash of issues that plagued them last year. They even go into this bye week arguably in a better spot than they were going into the first bye, which they used to get LaNorris Sellers, Rocket Sanders, and Jared Brown back healthy.

The first two returned and have played the last three games while Brown came back for the Ole Miss game only to get hurt again and miss the next two contests.

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“Injury-wise, came out of (the Oklahoma game) in pretty good shape, don’t think anything will affect anyone long-term, certainly not for Texas A&M and optimistic that we’ll have Jared Brown back next week for A&M as well,” head coach Shane Beamer said during his Sunday teleconference.

Brown appeared to be emerging as one of South Carolina’s top receiving threats earlier this year only to suffer the initial lower-body injury late in the first half against LSU. It also kept him out the following week against Akron.

The Gamecocks are also hoping to get back rotational defensive tackle DeAndre Jules for the game after the bye week. Jules was injured against Ole Miss and has missed the last two games.

“I would say I’m not as optimistic about Jules as I am Jared Brown,” Beamer said. “That’s not to say that we would rule Jules out. He’s a little bit behind Jared but still optimistic that he’ll be able to play next week.”

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Starting cornerback O’Donnell Fortune has also been dealing with a nagging injury.

He exited the Ole Miss game early but returned for Alabama and made a key second-half interception that at the time kept South Carolina in the lead.

But the issue popped up again Saturday against Oklahoma.

“He went into the game fine and then he tweaked something a little bit and we just didn’t think he was running great,” Beamer said Saturday after the game. “There were a couple of times in the first half where we felt like they ran past him a little bit and we don’t need to be getting run past in coverage. But we’ve got confidence in those other guys and it was good to see Vicari and Judge and David Spaulding get out there and play.”

Since the Gamecocks don’t play this week, there likely won’t be an injury update again until next Tuesday’s Beamer press conference.

That following Wednesday, the SEC will also put out its mandatory player availability report which will include the latest on the status of South Carolina’s players.