Jabari Small explains the difficulty of playing through shoulder injury

Tennessee running back Jabari Small hasn’t been 100% healthy over the past couple of games as he deals with a shoulder injury. After suffering the injury against Georgia in Week 10, Small returned the following week against Missouri but saw only nine carries in the 66-24 blowout victory.

In a Tuesday press conference, Small spoke about how the injury has been “frustrating” for him while also explaining what he is doing to work through it.

“It a little frustrating, but it’s there, so I’m gonna have to play through it,” he said. “Take care of it in the offseason. It’s not necessarily making it stronger. It’s just trying to secure it as best as I can and just try to protect it.”

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Small has split carries this year with Jaylen Wright, who leads the Volunteers backfield with 598 yards in addition to eight touchdowns. Small is not far behind him with 537 yards and nine scores. Quarterback Hendon Hooker has also been valuable as a runner with 405 rushing yards and five touchdowns.

The good news is it doesn’t seem like the injury will cause Jabari Small to miss any time, so it’s all a matter of how much it impacts his ability to perform. Even with single-digit carries last week, he was still effective, finishing with 54 yards and a touchdown.

So far this season, the Volunteers are averaging 195.5 rushing yards per game to rank fourth in the SEC, which is also a big reason why they lead the conference with 543.7 total yards per game. That should continue Saturday when they face South Carolina, which ranks 13th in the conference with 192 rushing yards allowed per game.

Kickoff between Tennessee and the Gamecocks is set for 7 p.m. ET in Columbia.