West Virginia head coach Neal Brown gave multiple injury updates after West Virginia left Fort Worth with a number of guys banged up.
Aubrey Burks and Trey Lathan
The two biggest pieces of news were about safety Aubrey Burks and linebacker Trey Lathan. Burks and Lathan are both still in Fort Worth recovering, but there is good news surrounding both.
Burks was carted off after dealing with an upper body injury. Burks was taken to a hospital where he was held for further testing and evaluation.
“Aubrey all tests were negative and for what that was, he’s in good spirits and he’s going to be okay. That was scary but best possible results. All his test were negative and we expect him to go through protocol and be on his way,” Brown said.
As for Burks playing again this season, it’s on the table but Brown wants to make sure Burks is mentally all the way back before he brings him back.
“I want to see what his availability’s going to be. I don’t want to speak to whether he’s going to be available or not. His injuries, I think best possible scenario but there’s some trauma in that,” Brown said. “I want to give him some time before we figure out where he’s at from a return standpoint.”
As for Lathan, Brown said he had successful surgery and is expected to make a full recovery from his leg injury.
“Trey had successful surgery yesterday. He’s going to miss the year but he’s expected to make a full recovery,” Brown said.
Both Burks and Lathan will fly back to Morgantown tomorrow on Tuesday.
Brown also praised both WVU and TCU’s medical staff for the work they did this weekend, attending to both player’s injuries.
“I want to praise, our medical team, our trainers, our doctors, I thought they did a tremendous job. Huge thank you to TCU, their medical staff, their training staff, they were extremely helpful. Their trauma team and their doctors, they handled the surgery yesterday,” Brown said.
Wyatt Milum
West Virginia left tackle Wyatt Milum missed some time in the second half after he was poked in the eye. Milum wanted to come back into the game, but Brown said he was not in a position to do so.
“Milum got poked in the eye. Kind of unfortunate, happened after the play. He wanted to play, his eye was completely shut,” Brown said. “We just didn’t think it was in his best interest to play. He’s playing at an extremely high level. If we can get them all playing like him from an effort and a production standpoint, we’d be on to something.”
Tomas Rimac
Another starting offensive lineman in left guard Tomas Rimac exited the game with an injury as well. Brown said the bye week comes at a good time for him and he’s working his way back.
“Tomas, I think it’s too early to tell. It’d be a struggle if we were playing on Saturday this week. But because we don’t play this week, I think we’ll see how it goes. It’s not something that’s going to keep him out an extended period of time.”
Kole Taylor
Brown said tight end Kole Taylor did not practice last week ahead of the game against TCU, adding his injury could have affected WVU’s game plan on offense.
“Kole didn’t practice all last week. He got banged up in that Texas Tech game. I think he’s got to be our one or two receiving threat. We weren’t sure how much he was going to play because he didn’t practice,” Brown said.
Jaylen Anderson
Anderson who had been a true number two running back to CJ Donaldson did not see the field on Saturday. Brown said he was sick last week and so they went with some other guys.
“He didn’t practice on Tuesday, he’d been sick. We just kind of went with some other guys. Jahiem earned an opportunity, he needs to play more,” Brown said.
Hershey McLaurin
McLaurin got banged up as well against TCU but Brown said it’s nothing serious.
“Hershey, I think he could’ve gone back in the game on Saturday. It was kind of a coaches decision. He did some good things early. We’ll see with him, but I think he’ll be fine.”
Garrett Greene
Greene returned for the first time in two weeks on Saturday, and looked to be close to 100 percent following his ankle injury. Brown said he was surprised with how good Greene looked in the run game, but that the time off will be good for him.
“He moved around a lot better than I anticipated in the game,” Brown said. “I talked to him on the phone yesterday, I didn’t see him. He said he felt good. He needs some time too so this week will be good for him. I anticipate him being 100 percent when we play a week from Thursday.”
