Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Craig Dickenson admits there is a little bit of worry when it comes to offensive lineman Terran Vaughn.
Vaughn left camp last week after suffering what the team thought was a minor shoulder injury that would be day-to-day. When the team hit the Mosaic Stadium turf on Monday to start week two after having Sunday off, Vaughn was not out there.
Dickenson says that will be the case for a while.
“We are a little bit worried about it. We sent him to get some pictures and we don’t have the results yet.” Dickenson said. “He’s definitely out of practice for at least a week or two until we can figure out what it is.”
Vaughn is expected to be one of the starting five on the offensive line. Another player who was thought to have a good chance as a starter has decided to retire.
Dickenson says former NFL’er Cyrus Kouandijo has decided to retire in a move that caught him off guard.
“We tried talking him out of it.”. Dickenson told reporters. His knees are giving him a lot of problems and he just felt like he didn’t want to deal with the pain that goes along with trying to play with bad knees.
As Week two of training camp gets underway, Dickenson was asked about the difficulties if any trying to conduct training camp with the COVID-19 protocols attached. He says it’s been a mixed bag.
“Some days it’s one step forward, two steps back and other days it seems like a normal camp.” Dickenson admitted. “The guys are doing a great job of toughing it out and wearing their masks and trying to socially distance but its not easy. I’m looking at only a third of the team maybe half and the other guys are in different rooms trying to watch. There are different challenges. You don’t get that face-to-face interaction, but we are playing football and that is what matters. We have had a couple of hard conversations about COVID and we have had to remind the guys and I’ve had to remind myself too, so it’s new for everybody, but I think the guys are doing a great job.”
Day 9 Notes
With Kouandjio’s surprise retirement there was a lot of shuffling on the top offensive line. Cameron Jefferson moved to left tackle. Logan Ferland moved into the first group at left guard with Brett Boyko kicking out to right tackle. Centre Dan Clark and Left Guard Evan Johnson remained in their positions.
Nick Marshall, Ed Gainey and Micah Johnson all returned to practice on Monday. Johnson had missed the previous three practice days and had taken a shot in his sore knee.
