Alabama’s first setback of the season was confirmed Monday as Nick Saban announced that outside linebacker Christopher Allen will require surgery on his injured foot, most likely ending the redshirt senior’s season.

Allen injured his right foot during a second-half strip-sack of Miami quarterback D’Eriq King in the second quarter of Saturday’s season opener inside of Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Following the play, the 6-foot-4, 242-pounder received a walking boot inside the team’s injury tent before being carted off to the locker room. He returned to the sidelines on crutches.

Allen is listed as Alabama’s starting Sam linebacker and is coming off a breakout year in which he led the SEC with 13 tackles for a loss to go with six sacks, five quarterback hurries and 41 total stops. He was replaced by sophomore Drew Sanders on Saturday. Sanders finished the game with six tackles, including two solo stops.

“Drew has done a really good job for us,” Saban said Monday. “He’s been a really good special teams player. Now, he’s gonna have the chance to step up and start, although we’ve kind of rotated the three of those guys at outside linebackers all as starters. We’ve got a lot of confidence in Drew. He’s a good athlete. Smart, hard worker, plays with toughness, gives great effort.

“So we’ll have to bring some other guys along at that position, as well, but we’re really pleased and confident in Drew.”

Along with Sanders, Saban has also mentioned five-star freshman Dallas Turner as a possible contributor at outside linebacker. Turner came to the Tide this summer as the No. 1 outside linebacker and No. 19 overall player in this year's class.

Alabama (1-0) will host FCS opponent Mercer (1-0) on Saturday at 3 p.m. CT inside of Bryant-Denny Stadium. The game will be televised on SEC Network.