The most talked-about injury in the SEC, and possibly the country in college football, is Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa’s right ankle injury and the surgery he had to repair it.

SEC Network host Paul Finebaum spoke about the injury during his regular weekly appearance on Birmingham-based WJOX, 94.5 FM program “The Roundtable.”

“It completely changes the dynamics of Nov. 9, and I think it changes the dynamics to favor LSU,” Finebaum said about the LSU-Alabama game.

The timetable for Tagovailoa’s return is up for debate in the medical community and among college football fans, but it appears at best that he would be less than 100 percent for the game, even if he’s off for two weeks as rehab continues. Coach Nick Saban has already said he won’t play this week against Arkansas, and then the Crimson Tide have an off week.

The Tigers, meanwhile, play host to Auburn this week after they got past Mississippi State following a bit of a slow start.

“LSU survived Mississippi State really well, it wasn’t great, but they put the game away,” Finebaum said. “They just have to look at this game and quit looking gleefully ahead to Nov. 9 and I know that sounds ridiculous, but I’m going to be in Baton Rouge this weekend, and I would say there’s going to be equal amount of conversation about Nov. 9 as Auburn. I would not take Auburn lightly in spite of the past records and in spite of everything else.”

Auburn routed Arkansas in a game Finebaum said could have been interesting, but those Tigers instead “just flat-out destroyed Arkansas” in a 51-10 decision.

“I think Box Nix needs to perform a lot better in an equal or more difficult environment than he did two weeks ago in The Swamp,” Finebaum said of the Auburn quarterback, “but I can’t argue what the oddsmakers have on this game and it’s hard to come up with a compelling reason for Auburn to win. Goes without saying, put pressure on him as much as you can.”

LSU is favored by about 11.5 points.