Ahmad Hardy was back at Missouri football practice on Monday, per head coach Eli Drinkwitz, which is the first step in getting the All-American back in pads and on the football field for a game.
But, there’s still an indefinite — and unknown — timeline for Hardy’s ability to actually get back to Saturday action.
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“Ahmad practiced yesterday, full participant in practice, and we’ll see how his body responds today,” Drinkwitz said. “We really don’t have any timelines on a return. Our goal is to just make sure he’s able to play and protect himself (as) best he can. So that will be our guide. We’ll be really attuned to how he’s feeling, how he feels like he can best perform, and we’ll rely on him and the doctors to make decisions based off of if and when he will be available this year.”
Hardy, who sustained a gunshot wound to his thigh while attending a concert in May in Laurel, Mississippi, has missed the Tigers‘ opening seven games of the season.
The running back was a consensus first-team All-American last season after rushing for a single-season program-record 1,649 yards. Without Hardy, the Tigers have still fielded one of the SEC’s leading rushers in Jamal Roberts, who ranks No. 2 in the league with 867 yards this year.
Mizzou still plans to err on the side of caution with Hardy over the final five games of the year. Drinkwitz previously has said that he needs to see the running back participate in two full weeks of full-speed practice before he considers playing him in a game.
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More: When is Missouri football’s next game? Details for Mizzou at Arkansas
The Missouri head coach didn’t necessarily rule out a return this coming Saturday, Oct. 31, when the Tigers (5-2, 2-2 SEC) are set to face Arkansas (3-4, 1-3) on the road in Fayetteville, Arkansas, although that still appears to be an unlikely timeline for Hardy’s return.
In the same answer, Drinkwitz said he still wasn’t sure if Hardy will be able to return this season.
“There’s no timeline on ‘if this, then this, then this.’ It’s, ‘we’ll see how today goes, and then we’ll figure out what tomorrow looks like and go from there,'” Drinkwitz said. “So, I don’t know if he’ll be back for Arkansas. I don’t know if he’ll be back for Texas. I don’t know if he’ll be back for the bowl game. Nobody knows.”
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Such is the nature of Hardy’s injury. Drinkwitz said it’s “more challenging than a hamstring or ACL” because of the “invasive nature of the recovery” and “the surgery that occurred.”
“There’s a lot of things there that have to go right continuously for him to be able … to return to play football at a high level,” Drinkwitz said. … “There’s just not an X-ray that tells you how he’s ready to go.”
Missouri has five games remaining in the regular season, and with some parity across the league, there is an outside chance the Tigers can make a run at the College Football Playoff. The Tigers face Arkansas this coming Saturday, and then Texas comes to Columbia for a game Nov. 7.
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If — and it’s still a very relevant if — Hardy is able to practice at full capacity with no setbacks, the game against the Longhorns would come at the end of a two-week ramp-up period for the running back.
After facing Texas, Mizzou plays Georgia on the road Nov. 14 before hosting Kentucky (Nov. 21) and Oklahoma (Nov. 28) to round out the regular season.
A lot will depend on how Hardy looks over the coming days. Drinkwitz said that during Hardy’s first practice back that “everything went good.” Mizzou quarterback Austin Simmons said he saw Hardy “make those cuts like he used to.”
If Hardy is available and up to playing speed, all indications point toward Mizzou being willing to play him — no matter how much or little season is left.
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The Tigers will release availability reports Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night leading up to Saturday’s game against Arkansas, and then will have one final report 90 minutes before kickoff.
More: What Arkansas coach Ryan Silverfield said about Missouri football
Hardy’s availability, per Drinkwitz, will depend on the running back’s “ability to sustain competitive success.”
“We’re really just going based off of practice yesterday. Everything went good, but it’s really going to be about, how does he feel today?” Drinkwitz said. “Because we don’t know if he can do a back-to-back practice, and then how does that translate to tomorrow?”
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Ahmad Hardy injury update: Eli Drinkwitz on star Mizzou RB’s possible return
