In his first three years at South Carolina, Keir Thomas made a big impact on the defensive line. He started 25 games, including 23 in the previous two seasons, providing depth at numerous positions.

However, the defensive lineman’s senior season hasn’t gone as planned.

Thomas is currently out with an ankle injury, and although he has been cleared for some exercise and had sutures removed, Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp told the media earlier this week that it could still be a few weeks before Thomas is cleared to return.

In that case, there’s a possibility that Thomas redshirts this season to give him another year of eligibility.

“I don’t know timetable-wise — is it going to be two weeks or three weeks to get him back to full speed?” Muschamp said, according to 247sports.com’s John Whittle. “Keir, his father and I will have some discussions about redshirting possibly, playing this year, I don’t know. We haven’t had any of those conversations, but that’s something we need to talk about, depending on when he’s fully cleared to come back. But we haven’t had any conversations at all at this point.”

Thomas could play in four games this season and still redshirt, so there’s a possibility that he could suit up for the Gamecocks later this year and next season.

However, Thomas won’t be on the field this Saturday, when South Carolina travels to play Missouri at 4 p.m. ET on SEC Network.