🏈 Press conf: Saban explains Yeldon's light workouts, sets plan moving into Sugar Bowl

[BAMANEWSBOT]

It's been more than a month since T.J. Yeldon sprained his ankle at LSU. His hamstring injury occurred in the season's first month, but the cumulative effect is real.

Alabama's leading rusher has been taking it easy in the past week of Sugar Bowl practice and it's by design.

"It's a medical decision as to what would be the best way for him to be able to come back and be able to be most effective playing," Nick Saban said. "That decision was to really limit what he does until we come back after Christmas. So he's doing a lot of rehab and a lot of conditioning-type stuff that is not going to put strain on the hamstring and some of the injuries that he's sorta had."

Yeldon's carries dropped from the Iron Bowl to the SEC title game a week later. He ran 19 times for 127 yards against Auburn, then 12 times for 47 yards in the Missouri win.

Since then, he's been suiting up in a full-contact uniform, but the junior has been skipping most of the drills. Alabama practices Sunday and Monday before taking a few days off and reconvening in New Orleans on Dec. 27.

"So we're trying to use this extra time to get him healthy rather than sorta staying on this treadmill of, OK, he never really gets better," Saban said. "So that's the plan. If that works, we'll feel great about it and he'll be ready when the game comes."

Yeldon 932 yards on 184 attempts leads the team ahead of Derrick Henry's 895 yards on 159 tries.

 

[BamaFan334]

He wasn't really needed in the SEC Championship game after the first quarter, so I think rest was the best thing. He is the most important player in our offense in my opinion, so he needs to be healthy, fresh and rested. We run so much play action and pass off the run and he is a workhorse stud that can get you five every time, so we need him healthy to make a run against any of these three teams.