Florida's Alex Anzalone doubtful for Kentucky with shoulder injury
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida head coach Jim McElwain, on his regular appearance on the SEC media teleconference Wednesday, said junior linebacker Alex Anzalone is "doubtful" for Saturday's game at Kentucky.
Anzalone left the East Carolina game in the first half Saturday due to a shoulder injury. Anzalone has six tackles in the first two games and has emerged as one of the team's defensive leaders.
That's a recurrence of a pre-existing injury that he'd had for a couple years,'' McElwain said.
With Anzalone sidelined, linebackers Daniel McMillian, Jeremi Powell and Anthony Harrell could see more playing time. McElwain said earlier this week the Gators likely will play more dime and nickel packages if Anzalone is unable to play.
"It's hard for us to replace a guy like that but we've just got to make sure that we play to the best of our ability,'' Gators linebacker Jarrad Davis said. "It's just going to take everybody's best effort every time we step out there on the field or we'll let games slip."
Meanwhile, freshman offensive lineman Martez Ivey and junior cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III returned to practice this week.
Hargreaves missed the East Carolina game due to a leg injury but appears likely to play Saturday. As for Ivey, one of Florida's top recruits recently underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and missed the first two games.
McElwain sounded optimistic Wednesday that Ivey is close to returning.
"Martez actually played very well [Tuesday] and this morning, the response on that particular injury showed very good," McElwain said. "In other words, there wasn't a lot of recap on that."
