Perhaps the best player in the Southeastern Conference this season is having surgery that might keep him out for the rest of the regular season.
Georgia tight end Brock Bowers, diagnosed with a high ankle sprain in the first half of the defending national champions’ eventual 37-20 win over Vanderbilt in Nashville, was to have surgery on that left ankle on Monday, according to ESPN and several other outlets.
The surgery Bowers had is called TightRope surgery, and rather than using metal screws, it uses surgical thread. It’s the same surgery former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had while there, back in 2018.
Tua missed about a month after having the surgery.
Most media outlets reporting the story on Bowers are also reporting he could miss up to six weeks with the injury. That would be right around the time the Bulldogs (7-0) are finishing the regular season against Georgia Tech, or shortly thereafter, which could be the week of the SEC Championship Game.
That means Bowers, from Napa, California, would miss at least three games. Coach Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs, seeking a third straight national title, have an open date this week, then the neutral-site game against archrival Florida in Jacksonville on Oct. 28. The games after that: home against No. 20 Missouri (Nov. 4), home against No. 13 Ole Miss on Nov. 11, and then the trip to Tennessee on Nov. 18.
Losing any of those could put the Bulldogs in high jeopardy of missing that SEC title game. Missouri and Tennessee are both in the SEC East, and both of them currently have just one conference loss.
Ironically, two other Georgia players have had the same surgery this year: tight end Lawson Luckie in August, and Amarius Mims, a right tackle. Luckie just returned to the team and the field, if they need him, and Mims, who was hurt in September, is still out. Luckie, Oscar Delp and Pearce Spurlin III are expected to fill in for Bowers.
Bowers, whom we here at TFB believe should be a serious candidate for the Heisman Trophy, leads Georgia with 567 yards and four touchdowns on 41 catches.
ESPN NFL Draft guru Mel Kiper has Bowers as the number four pick next spring.
