Training camp for the Riders doesn’t start until Saturday, but the Riders have a big problem on their hands already.

During a workout at Mosaic Stadium, GM Jeremy O’Day said middle linebacker Larry Dean, defensive lineman Freddie Bishop and rookies Nelson Lokombo and Jonathan Femi-Cole suffered what O’Day is calling “long-term” achilles injuries.

O’Day says the four were not doing competitive drills and that he has never seen something like this before.

“I can say that in all my years of being around the game, I’ve never seen anything quite like this where we have four injuries like this in the same period of time.” O’Day said.

As for what happens now, O’Day says he needs to sit down and figure that out.

“From my standpoint as a general manager, I just have to regroup and look at the roster to determine whether there is players we could bring in or if we already have players that we think could take the opportunity that was opened by these injuries.” O’Day said.

Dean was scheduled to replace Solomon Elimimian at middle linebacker while Bishop was pencilled in as the replacement for Charleston Hughes on the defensive line.  Lokombo was taken 2nd overall after a great career at the University of Saskatchewan while Femi-Cole was taken in the 6th round of the 2020 draft.