Almost in real time, Alabama coach Nick Saban reacted to Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz reporting that the Tigers would be without 12 players because of COVID-19-related reasons next week for their game in Columbia.

“We really don’t have anybody that would be out for sure for the game,” Saban told reporters Wednesday night. “We may have some injured players that may be out. We’ll let you know. I could give you a number but I don’t know which 12 players Missouri has out.”

Saban said Alabama does not have any players who will be “out for sure” for Missouri opener because of COVID. “We may have some injured players who might not recover in time.”

The coach also shared that Alabama is now testing its players daily, as opposed to three times a week.

“With that, hopefully everybody feels safe and it will help the fact that we won’t have to quarantine some of these guys, minimize exposures,” he said.

Alabama, like many other teams, is in the midst of transitioning from preseason workouts to preparing for an opponent.

“I think the big focus for us this week was to improve,” Saban said. “We obviously had a lot of things coming out of the second scrimmage that we need to do better. This is kind of hump week for the players in a lot of ways.”

H/T Roger Hoover and Charlie Potter.