Clemson football injury updates: Dabo Swinney reveals Billy Wilkes as the only longterm player sidelined

Injuries in fall camp is something no team wants to deal with. Luckily for Clemson, they’re not having to deal with too many long-term injuries to start the season.

Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney revealed that only one player will miss extended time due to injury so far this offseason. For everyone else, it appears full-go ahead of the Aug. 30 season opener against the LSU Tigers.

“The only real long term injury is, we’ve got a young linebacker named Billy Wilkes. He tore his ACL in the spring game,” Swinney said. “So he’s kind of the only long term guy you’ll see.”

Wilkes was a walk-on for the Tigers in 2024, appearing in one game for Clemson. He recorded no stats, and will likely spend most of, if not all of the 2025 season recovering from his knee injury.

Swinney said that those attending practice will see players in green jerseys. This different color indicates the player is not yet able to return to full contact but are still able to execute drills with the team.

“If you’re in green, you’re in practice,” Swinney said definitively. It’s clear that he has a certain expectation of his recovering players on the practice field.

Swinney identified RB Jay Haynes, OL Watson Young and DEs Armon Mason and Ari Watford as the players who are currently sporting green practice jerseys to begin fall camp. These players are expected to be back in the coming weeks, if not days depending on their ailment.

“I think Watson actually is going to be full go,” Swinney continued. “… But those other three guys are all doing good. They’re doing really well. So we’ve just got a good plan with our medical staff as far as their ramp up into full go.”

The Clemson coach also noted several players who are wearing yellow jerseys — TE Olsen Patt-Henry, WR Juju Preston and RB Peyton Streko. These are player who are not out long-term but, but just out for a “few days here or there.”

Swinney revealed that Patt-Henry had his tonsils removed, and is still recovering from the procedure. Preston is nursing a hamstring issue and Streko is healing an injury to his shin.

“They’re short-term — it could be two weeks. Could be six weeks, but that’s kind of a short-term thing,” Swinney said of the yellow-shirted bunch.

Overall, Swinney feels like Clemson is “in a good spot,” heading into the 2025 season. With few major injuries to report on — Clemson could enter Week 1 against LSU near full health.