Dabo Swinney announces Clemson safety RJ Mickens is out vs. NC State after surgical procedure

The hits keep coming for Clemson. Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney announced on Tuesday that safety RJ Mickens and receiver Antonio Williams will miss the NC State game.

Antonio Williams is “going to be out for a while, unfortunately,” according to Swinney.

One of the Tigers top receivers, Williams was battling an ankle injury earlier this season but now is dealing with something else.

“It’s not his ankle, so that’s positive. It’s more of kind of underneath his toe area,” Swinney said during his press conference on Tuesday. “He’s probably going to be a few weeks. So hopefully we’ll get him back maybe by the end of the season, maybe the last couple of games. I don’t know. We’ll just have to see how he responds.”

Williams has started four games this season. He has 17 catches for 192 yards and two scores. The sophomore led Clemson in receiving last year as a true freshman but has already missed three games this year and is set to miss more time.

Williams had two catches for 47 yards prior to going down with the injury.

“Got him back and you see what he can do. He made some nice plays, but It’ll be kind of week-to-week with him,” Swinney said.

RJ Mickens will be sidelined after undergoing surgery to get his appendix removed, according to Swinney.

Mickens has started every game this season and is third on the team in tackles with 37.

“Mickens is going to be out. They had to take his appendix out yesterday. Stomach ache and hurting. And he had appendicitis. So he’ll be fine, but you’ve gotta heal up from getting that taken out,” Swinney said. “It’s a tough break for us there, for sure. But we’ll get them ready.”

Mickens had eight tackles, including a tackle for loss, against Miami. Swinney said it could be two or three weeks before he is back.

Clemson has a few other players who are also battling injuries. One of those is starting defensive end Justin Mascoll.

“Today’s the first day in pads. So we’ll see where he is today. And I’d say he’s day-to-day,” Swinney said.

He did not provide specifics as far as which other Tigers players are banged up but it sounds as if there are some.

“Those two, for sure, will be out,” Swinney said of Mickens and Williams. “And then still got the other guys that you already know about that have been out – Cole [Turner] and Walker [Parks]. And then a couple of other guys day to day. So we’ll see.”

Clemson is looking to bounce back after dropping a double-overtime game with Miami this past weekend.