Injury Update – Allen, Floyd OK

Charlie Weis updated the injury status of his team at his weekly Tuesday press conference. Weis said that both running back Armando Allen and wide receiver Michael Floyd look good for this weekend, but fullback James Aldridge remains “doubtful”.

Here’s the excerpt from his presser regarding the injuries:

Floyd didn’t have any knee injury. He had 15 stitches in that knee, so what we will do is practice him and just not have him do monkey rolls and try to keep him off the ground and try to keep the cut from opening up this week. And also we will do all we can.

But we are told, he’s from Minnesota and we gave him the hockey analogy; that if you get 15 stitches in a hockey game, usually you’re out about five minutes and you’re back in there. So we have playing the Minnesota angle with him all week long. But fortunately he is going around pretty good.

The problem, one of my bigger concerns, is this campus, like every other campus, I’m concerned with the swine flu; in that we haven’t had any firm cases of it, but because it’s running around, all of the high schools and colleges around the country, that’s all a concern of mine, and you know, kids can come down at last minute and get sick. Knock-on-wood, we continue to be relatively healthy.

I would put Aldridge not out, but I would say doubtful. He’s going to run around some today. We will have to test the shoulder out. But I would still list him as doubtful for the game. Other than that, you could bring somebody up that I might be forgetting — Armando is good. Bruised ego but other than that, I think should be just fine.

Having Allen and Floyd healthy this weekend will be important if Notre Dame is to break Michigan State’s six game winning streak in Notre Dame Stadium. Missing James Aldrdige for another week means we’ll see more of Robert Hughes at fullback this weekend.  Hughes got his first career start at fullback against Michigan last weekend, but didn’t really get any action either running or receiving.  Hopefully with a week of experience under his belt, Weis will be able to get him involved more into the game plan.  With all of the receiving weapons Notre Dame has that Michigan State will have to account for, having a fullback that can make plays out of the backfield will only add another dimension to an already impressive offense.