Missouri LB Ty'Ron Hopper heads to locker room vs. Tennessee with injury

Missouri was already without linebacker Chad Bailey for the rest of the season, and the Tigers saw another starter go down Saturday against Tennessee. Ty’Ron Hopper hobbled off the field, favoring his left leg, and ended up heading to the locker room as a result.

Hopper went straight to the injury tent after the second-quarter play, according to CBS’ Jenny Dell, and ended up limping to the locker room. He had both ankles taped, Dell said, and Eli Drinkwitz later declared him “doubtful” to return.

Hopper has been a key piece of the Mizzou defense this year, leading the Tigers with 53 tackles while adding three sacks and three passes defended entering Saturday’s game. Missouri ended up taking a 13-7 lead into the halftime locker room after getting a huge stop late in the second quarter and a 46-yard field goal from Harrison Mevis.

Drinkwitz confirmed Bailey would be out for the rest of the year during his Thursday press conference. He aggravated an injury he suffered during the offseason, and given the timing, he’ll miss the remainder of the year as a result.

“Chad has had a reoccurrence of that injury that he had in the summer,” Drinkwitz said. “We’re going to do what’s best interest of him, so he’ll be out the remainder of the season. He’s going to continue to help our team as best he can with being in meetings and helping coach the linebackers, serving them with leadership and captaincy.

“But he’ll be out the rest of the year. He’s going to go get a second opinion on what’s the next step for him. Hopefully we can get him healthy enough to pursue his dream of playing at the next level.”

Bailey played in five games after missing time at the beginning of the season. He tallied 17 tackles, a tackle for a loss, a sack, a forced fumble and a pass breakup.

The Tigers will have to move on without him.

It’ll be a lot more difficult to do so if some of the other issues littering the injury report aren’t minor. Burden is one of the best receivers in the nation, and getting him back was a big boost for Saturday’s game against Tennessee.

Drinkwitz ran through the rest of the injury report on Thursday.

“Realus George will be questionable this week,” he said. “He got dinged up on the second to last play. Luther Burden will be questionable this week. Theo Wease would be probable, Brady Cook will be probable. Cody Schrader will be probable. Ennis Rakestraw will be probable. All those guys are dealing with different things that they’ve kind of battled through.

“I think Luther and Realus would be the two that I’m the most concerned about right now.”

On3’s Andrew Graham contributed to this report.