Auburn has 16 players out this week due to coronavirus concerns

The college football season is just under four weeks away from kicking off and the Kentucky Wildcats will start their season with a road trip to face the Auburn Tigers.

Unfortunately, the Tigers are having issues with coronavirus cases as the season nears.

According to AL.com, head coach Gus Malzahn told the media Sunday night that 9 of his players have tested positive for the virus, and 7 more are considered high risk, bringing to total to 16 players out this week.

Last week, the Tigers canceled two practices and their second scrimmage due to the outbreak. However, Malzahn said the team decided to cancel the scrimmage in part due to the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

“We had a pretty challenging week last week,” Malzahn said. “We’re learning as we go here. Every day and every week is a challenge.”

The outbreak came from two different position groups which is why they decided to cancel practice.

“We’ll just have to adjust as it goes,” Malzahn said. “If we have a small number of a position group, we’ll just have to adjust. So that’s really going to be the name of the game moving forward. … And with who we’ve got out there, we’ll make the best of it.”

Malzahn did note that he hasn’t had many players show “major symptoms” but regardless, Auburn’s policy requires players who test positive to quarantine for 17 days (10-day isolation and 7-day re-acclimation period) before they are allowed to return to activity. Players who were in close contact with the positive tests must quarantine for 2 weeks.

Auburn is planning on restarting practices on Tuesday as we get closer to the September 26^th start to college football.

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