Alabama Crimson Tide tight end Josh Ford will miss the remainder of the 2026 season due to an injury, head coach Kalen DeBoer officially confirmed Monday afternoon.
The news was originally reported by CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz, with DeBoer confirming during his Monday afternoon press conference.
"Unfortunately Josh suffered an injury, and it can be season-ending," DeBoer said. "I mean, the guy's so tough. I know he's probably right now is trying to figure out how he's still going to play this year. Just who he is, and his impact has been really key for our football team in a lot of ways. Just a guy that's a uniter. You got uniters and dividers, and he's a uniter of our football team, he's a leader. I think we go back to spring ball and talked about
the physicality of what he brought and how other guys I think fed off of that."
"We're going to have to find ways to make up the gap that he leaves with him not being with us. I know he'll be with us, but not on the football field, and so an important guy and I think our team just loves him to death. I know I do as well. We'll be thinking about Josh here, and I know he's gonna have a fast recovery. He'll do everything he can to get back as soon as possible."
Ford, a junior tight end, suffered a leg injury during Saturday's win at LSU in the second half which he did not return from. The Oklahoma State transfer has five receptions for 41 yards and two touchdowns across nine games, and is also a key blocker in the run game at the tight end position.
In addition to Ford, DeBoer also provided an update Monday on a pair of other Alabama starters who are dealing with injuries coming out of the LSU game. Among those were cornerback Zabien Brown, who returned for the LSU game but did not play much, as well as offensive lineman William Sanders, who did not see action.
“Zabien has got the lower-extremity injury,” DeBoer said. “Got some snaps, and I think any snaps that we could get out of him on the weekend was gonna be a positive. Obviously, he’s on the football field first of all, and I think that’s impactful. His presence, and then I think also just the number of snaps it took off some of the other guys. I think he’s coming along, day-to-day. He played last week, and really didn’t feel like there was a setback. It was just going to be limited on what he could give us. He pushed it as far as we felt he could push himself. Getting him back this week is something I would expect. Just keep progressing.”
“William Sanders, we feel good about his progress. It’s been a quick turnaround for him. Realistically, knew that it would be really hard to get him on the football field. Went through warmups, and then we knew he wouldn’t be a starter, but we were trying to figure out if in an emergency role, if that could happen. We’ll keep progressing, but we need some improvements this week to get to where he can go out there and be competitive to the level we need him.”
Alabama's next game comes this upcoming Saturday afternoon on the road at Vanderbilt with kickoff set for 12:45 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on SEC Network.
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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: Kalen DeBoer updates Josh Ford, injured Tide players after win vs. LSU
