The Saskatchewan Roughriders are unsure of exactly how things will unfold with left tackle Terran Vaughn’s shoulder injury, but the early prognosis is far from encouraging.
“We don’t know how serious it is. We’re going to brace him up and see if he can play and if he can, we’ll do that. But if he can’t, he’ll probably have to go and get that fixed,” said head coach Craig Dickenson in a videoconference.
“A decision hasn’t been made, but it’s kind of up to him and what he can tolerate pain-wise. There is some issues there that our training staff feels like he might be able to play if we brace him up, so that’s where we’re at right now.”
Dickenson confirmed that Vaughn’s current injury is unrelated to the shoulder problem he had in 2019. He also spoke about the importance of having a veteran presence protecting Cody Fajardo’s blindside at left tackle.
“He’s a good player and he’s got experience, that’s the main thing. He’s played in this league for a couple years so he knows the pace of the game and he knows strengths and weaknesses of guys in the league that he’s played against,” said Dickenson.
“Losing a guy with a lot of experience like that would hurt, so if we could have him, I think he would solidify that tackle position and help the rest of the line. We’re going to have some new faces out there, so it would be nice to have a vet besides Dan Clark in that group.”
The Riders lost potential starting right tackle Cyrus Kouandjio to retirement on Monday when he told the team that he was unwilling to continue playing through knee pain. It remains unclear who the starting right tackle will be in Week 1, which would only exacerbate the problems the team is now potentially facing at left tackle.