Alabama basketball injury update: Updates on Grant Nelson and Latrell Wrightsell ahead of the opener

Alabama men's basketball is dealing with a number of injuries heading into the season.

Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats provided an update Thursday on the injuries to Grant Nelson, Latrell Wrightsell Jr. and Aiden Sherrell. Everyone has been training with some limitations in some capacity this week, and Oats expressed varying levels of optimism about each one.

“Wrightsell is probably the most advanced, followed by Sherrell and Grant,” Oats said. “Grant has been involved in a lot more things than the other two so far. They all did something in the last two days of training.”

Oats said Nelson, Wrightsell and Sherrell will be the game-day decisions.

“I think Wrightsell should play,” Oats said.

The team has Fridays off and then works Saturdays and Sundays.

“See how they recover after today’s practice,” Oats said. “What they look like tomorrow … see if we can get them in there a little bit more on Saturday and see where they are by Sunday.”

Oats said the team hopes to get all three back and play Monday, at least in some capacity. If they do, all three will likely be placed on some sort of minutes restriction, Oats said.

Nelson, Wrightsell, Sherrell and Chris Youngblood missed the two exhibition games against Wake Forest and Memphis in recent weeks.

Youngblood is expected to miss a while with his injury but is expected to return in conference play. “Youngblood won’t be back for about a month and a half,” Oats said. “We hope to have him sometime in mid-December.”

Nelson and Wrightsell are both returning starters for the Final Four team. Sherrell is a freshman center who was a five-star McDonald's All-American in high school.

The Crimson Tide begin their sixth season under Oats with a matchup against UNC Asheville on Monday (8 p.m. CT, ESPNU) at Coleman Coliseum.

Nick Kelly is a beat writer from Alabama AL.com and Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X And Instagram.