Oregon Football: Kayvon Thibodeaux getting “close” to return

Oregon football fans got some good news on Wednesday afternoon as Mario Cristobal spoke to the media about injuries and some key players’ availability for the Arizona game on Saturday.

Anthony Brown was one of the main topics after practice with Cristobal and the media as he missed the second half of the Week 3 game against Stony Brook. Ty Thompson looked solid in his place, turning a 17-7 lead into a 48-7 victory along with some help from Jay Butterfield.

But according to Matt Prehm’s report on 247Sports, Cristobal said that Brown is “good to go” for Saturday against Arizona.

Brown wasn’t exactly a player fans were worried about because there were rumors he was practicing all week and the long-term injury wasn’t even on the mind but there’s another guy who has been on the minds of everyone for two weeks: Kayvon Thibodeaux.

According to that same report from Prehm, Thibodeaux was trying to play last week against Stony Brook on key third-down situations but the coaching staff obviously vetoed the request. If that’s the case, he clearly has to be close to a return and Cristobal echoed that sentiment, stating that his superstar defensive end is “really improving” and that he’s “close” to a return.

Does that mean this week? No, probably not, but he should be back for bigger games.

Oregon football is banged up after three weeks

Besides Thibodeaux and Keith Brown (along with Anthony Brown) who are a little banged up, the Ducks are missing Sean Dollars, Justin Flowe, Dru Mathis, Cam McCormick, Patrick Herbert, and Jackson LaDuke.

This team isn’t full-strength, by any means, and the Ducks have to feel fortunate that the Pac-12 schedule will kick off at home against lowly Arizona.

Let’s hope these injuries don’t persist.