The Auburn Tigers are down to only eight scholarship players after starting forward Anfernee McLemore was injured on Saturday against South Carolina.

Then there’s guard Bryce Brown, who has been battling nagging injuries for a few weeks now.

As the Tigers try to hold on to the top spot in the SEC standings, they’ll need to keep everyone currently on the roster healthy, and that won’t be an easy task. On Monday, coach Bruce Pearl said Auburn would eliminate contact practices the rest of the year to try to avoid additional injuries (via AL.com):

“I can’t see having contact practice the rest of the way,” Pearl said. “We’ve had one contact practice in the last two weeks and that was one day before Kentucky and it was a factor in our preparation for South Carolina. Typically, in getting ready for South Carolina we would hit Friday but Bryce (Brown) could barely move and I just can’t run the risk of getting down (to seven), losing anybody else.”

The Tigers still have a two game lead over Tennessee in the SEC standings, but they can’t afford any additional setbacks.

The road to an SEC title has gotten much tougher for Auburn, but the Tigers still have enough talent to get the job done even with a lack of depth.