Marlin Klein, Giovanni El-Hadi, Zeke Berry, Rod Moore injury updates: 'High probability' Michigan gets star player back this week

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan Wolverines football has been banged up with injuries early in the season, but U-M may get some key pieces back for Saturday’s game against Central Michigan.

Senior tight end Marlin Klein wore a large brace on his right ankle and didn’t play after being labeled as questionable for the game against Oklahoma. He went through warmups but was visibly limited.

“Marlin is looking better, so we’ll see what he can do this week,” head coach Sherrone Moore said. “I think he’ll practice a little bit Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we’ll go from there.”

Graduate left guard Giovanni El-Hadi left the field with a lower-body injury in the second quarter against the Sooners, and his status is up in the air.

“Gio, we’ll see,” Michigan’s head coach said. “That’s day to day, so we’ll take a look at that and see how that looks.”

Graduate safety Rod Moore, who missed the entire 2024 campaign and the first two tilts of this season with a torn ACL, is probable to return. He dressed for the 24-13 loss at Oklahoma over the weekend for the first time since the national championship game, going through warmups after being listed as ‘questionable.’

“We think there’s a good chance that Rod can play this week,” Sherrone Moore said said of the 2023 third-team All-Big Ten selection. “We’ve been very cautious with him. No one knows their body like Rod does. And he wanted to play in that game, believe me. Just the timeline of what we said and how we wanted to do it didn’t fit. 

“But high probability that Rod Moore plays in the game on Saturday. But we’ll see. We want to make sure he feels right, there’s nothing that goes on, there’s no swelling or anything in his knee. And it’s been good the past couple weeks, so we’ll just take it day by day with him.”

The defensive backfield depth was stressed against Oklahoma. The Wolverines were without not only Moore but also some cornerbacks, including graduate Caleb Anderson, sophomore Jo’Ziah Edmond and freshman Shamari Earls.

Senior Zeke Berry — who’s in his second year as a starter — went down in the third quarter but didn’t suffer anything major.

“Zeke — very mild lower-body injury, so we’ll see how he progresses through the week,” Moore noted. “But he looks good. He was jogging around on the sideline in the second half, but that was more precautionary to make sure nothing was wrong.”

Michigan will likely have Earls and Anderson good to go this weekend. Earls traveled for his first road trip but did not dress, while Anderson went through warmups before not playing.

“It’ll be good to get Shamari Earls back this week. It looks like we’ll possibly get him and Caleb Anderson back this week, so that’ll be huge for the corner depth,” Moore said.

Michigan freshman Jayden Sanders stepped in after Berry went down during the second half of the game versus the Sooners, and Moore was pleased with how he performed. Michigan’s cornerbacks were solid, per Moore, including Berry and junior Jyaire Hill.

“I was pretty proud of those guys,” Moore said. “Zeke had the one double move, and then we had a penalty and they threw the deep one, and we didn’t re-route it.

“But overall, those guys played really well, especially Jayden Sanders for a freshman. He came in, in the fourth quarter, and you never even noticed him. He made a couple tackles. Pretty proud of what they did.”