Judge Collier injury update: Availability report reveals status for South Carolina vs. Kentucky

The initial injury report for a Week 5 contest between South Carolina and Kentucky has been released on Wednesday. Gamecocks cornerback Judge Collier was one of the key players listed after having not played since the season opener against Virginia Tech due to a knee injury.

Collier made his return to practice this week, coach Shane Beamer revealed Tuesday. He was listed as questionable for the contest against the Wildcats, and you can check out the full injury report for both teams below.

South Carolina:

Questionable:
DB #1 DQ Smith
DB #8 Judge Collier

Doubtful:
DB #11 Buddy Mack III
OL #62 Nolan Hay
OL #75 Cason Henry
DL #99 Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy

Kentucky:

Questionable:
QB #5 Zach Calzada
OL #53 Aba Selm

Doubtful:
DB #5 DJ Waller Jr.

Out:
RB #10 Jamarion Wilcox
DL #55 Nic Smith
WR #82 David Washington Jr.
TE #85 Elijah Brown
WR #89 Preston Bowman

Collier, tight end Mike Smith, and safety DQ Smith all missed the Gamecocks’ 29-20 loss to Missouri last week. Beamer addressed the health of his group as a whole on Tuesday.

“Injury-wise, we’ll have a report for you tomorrow night, nobody that we’d say right now is out,” Beamer said Tuesday. “It was good to see Judge Collier back at practice today, hopefully he will continue to trend in the right direction, and see where guys are tomorrow night when we release that availability report.”

Kentucky is coming off of a bye week that allowed it the opportunity to rest up and get closer to full health. Wildcats players who were dealing with injury include DJ Waller Jr., Tehryon Nichols and  Dante Dowdell. Coach Mark Stoops said he did not expect any of those injuries to be long-term.

Since this is an SEC matchup, South Carolina and Kentucky will both release availability reports throughout the week. In addition to Wednesday’s injury report, there will also be reports released on Thursday and Friday, then one final report that comes out 90 minutes before kickoff.

South Carolina (2-2, 0-2 SEC) enters this week in desperate need of a victory after dropping back-to-back games against Vanderbilt and Missouri. Kentucky (2-1, 0-1), on the other hand narrowly lost 20-13 against Ole Miss in Week 2 before bouncing back with a 48-23 victory against Eastern Michigan in Week 3.

South Carolina owns a 21-14-1 all-time advantage in the series against Kentucky, including winning the past three matchups. Last season they handed the Wildcats a 31-6 loss.

The Gamecocks will hope for similar results this time around and are a 6.5-point favorites according to BetMGM. All that in mind, the injury report will be worth monitoring closely throughout this week before the game kicks off at 7:45 p.m. ET in Lexington on Saturday.