Gus Malzahn updates injury status of Auburn LB Deshaun Davis

Auburn coach Gus Malzahn made no bones over how concerned he was about Deshaun Davis’ potential knee injury.

The Tigers “dodged a bullet” in regard to the senior linebacker’s health, Malzahn said during his Tuesday press conference. Davis appeared to seriously injure his knee in the fourth quarter of Auburn’s 23-9 loss at Mississippi State last Saturday, but his outlook has drastically improved since then.

Auburn HC Gus Malzahn on LB Deshaun Davis' knee: "We really dodged a bullet with that. It scared him, got twisted and people landed on him."

Davis returned to the game and will practice today.

— Justin Ferguson (@JFergusonAU) October 9, 2018

Davis is the Tigers’ leading tackler by a wide margin with 53 total stops. The three-year starter also leads the team with 7.5 tackles for loss this season.

Despite drawing concern from teammates while trainers worked with him, Davis returned against the Bulldogs and finished with 10 tackles. He has already noticed improvement in his knee and plans to see just how good he feels during practice Tuesday.

Deshaun Davis on his hurt knee: "I feel good. I feel a lot better than I did Saturday. … I'm going to go out to practice and see how I feel. … I should be fine Saturday."

Davis says it's the same knee he had surgery on in high school, so it was scary.

— AUBlog (@AUBlog) October 9, 2018

Malzahn will likely update Davis’ status later this week. No. 21 Auburn (4-2, 1-2 SEC) hosts Tennessee (2-3, 0-2) at noon ET on Saturday.