Texas Football: 3 key injured Longhorns players heading into OU game

Ja’Tavion Sanders, TE

The most significant injury the Longhorns were dealt last weekend in the Kansas game was to standout junior tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders. In the first half against Kansas, a Jayhawk defender rolled up on Sanders’ ankle, causing him to be in visible pain on the field after the play was over.

Sanders didn’t return to the game after suffering this first-half ankle injury. He was seen on the sidelines trying to get the ankle taped up and return to the game. But he didn’t take any offensive snaps after suffering the injury in the first half. And he was eventually taken to the locker room before halftime.

At the end of the game, Sanders was seen in a walking boot on that injured ankle.

The good news with the Sanders ankle injury is that it sounds like there isn’t any structural damage. Sark said in his postgame press conference after the win over Kansas last weekend that he is “hopeful” Sanders will be available for Red River on Oct. 7 since he didn’t believe there was any structural damage.

An injury update courtesy of CJ Vogel of TFB Texas on Oct. 2 (donor content) mentioned that Sanders was in a walking boot on Monday morning. Multiple injury reports and Sark’s injury update on Sanders’ ankle in his Monday press conference on Oct. 2 all lead to the belief that this will be a patient process that will take a few days to work itself out.

We probably won’t know Sanders’ status for the OU game until a day or two before it kicks off this week.