Mizzou Tigers lose tackle to season-ending injury; Burden, Bailey also nursing injuries

You know it was a tough day for Missouri when an interception that set up a short-field touchdown for Auburn during last Saturday’s 17-14 overtime road loss wasn’t the worst thing that happened on the play.

Tackle Zeke Powell was helped off the field and stood on the sideline using crutches for the rest of the game. On Tuesday, Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz said Powell’s injury, incurred on that fateful play, was season ending.

This is Powell’s final year of eligibility.

“That’s a tough one for us to lose,” Drinkwitz said. “He did everything we asked him to do. He’s going to get his degree. Really proud of him for that.”

Powell, from Georgiana, Ala., started his career at South Alabama, where he sat out as a redshirt before transferring to Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College. This was his third season at Missouri.

Drinkwitz also said two players are questionable because of injuries for Saturday’s home game against Georgia: linebacker Chad Bailey and wide receiver/return specialist Luther Burden.

Burden suffered the injury on the second series Saturday — it kept him out of the second quarter — Drinkwitz said. Burden played in the second half. He didn’t have a reception in a game for the first time this season, and he returned one punt for three yards, even though he wasn’t supposed to.

“He was not supposed to do anything but fair catch the punts,” Drinkwitz said. “But he was trying to provide a spark when he decided to return that one.”