We now know the identity of the two Montreal Alouettes who suffered Achilles injuries thanks to a report from the Montreal Gazette’s Herb Zurkowsky.
Receiver Teo Redding and defensive back Ryan Carter were the two players in question, which brings the total number of players across the CFL with Achilles injuries to six thus far.
Redding is a six-foot-one, 176-pound receiver formerly of the Detroit Lions, Washington Football Team, and Green Bay Packers of the NFL. He also had a stint in the XFL with the New York Guardians before signing with the Alouettes in December 2020.
Carter spent the 2019 season with Montreal, making 22 tackles in fourteen regular season games. The Clemson product spent time with the Buffalo Bills prior to signing with the Alouettes but did not dress for any regular season games.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders lost four players to Achilles injuries on Thursday with each injury taking place within six minutes of each other. Those hurt included linebacker Larry Dean, defensive end Freddie Bishop III, defensive back Nelson Lokombo, and running back Jonathan Femi-Cole.
Dean and Bishop III were locks to start, while Lokombo was the No. 2 overall selection in the 2021 CFL Draft.
The Canadian Football League Players’ Association issued an internal memo on Friday that was obtained by 3DownNation. In it the union claims to have received reports that caused “great concern that the coaching staff were not respecting the protocols in place for the first week of player isolation.”
Saskatchewan general manager Jeremy O’Day spoke to the media on Thursday following the rash of injuries suffered by his players.
“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. Usually you see one or two in a year, maybe,” he said.
“Our goal as a team was the opposite of this. We wanted to slowly ramp up the players and even into training camp you’ll see that our practices are toned back.”
“We had the intent of this being the opposite, that was our plan going in so I think perhaps you are seeing some of the effects of the layoff.”
