No. 1 Alabama will be down another pass-rusher for its trip to Texas A&M this weekend. During his appearance on the weekly SEC teleconference, Nick Saban provided an injury report on Drew Sanders, stating that the starting outside linebacker will probably be out for Saturday’s game due to a hand injury.

“He has a hand injury, it required surgery,” Saban said. “It was a little maybe worse than we thought, so he’s going to be game-to-game here for a few weeks. So we’ll see how it goes.”

Sanders filled in for Christopher Allen at Sam linebacker following Allen’s season-ending foot injury in Week 1. Through five games has recorded 20 tackles, including one for a loss, with four quarterback hurries and two pass breakups. During last weekend’s game against Ole Miss, the sophomore tallied five tackles and two quarterback hurries, including a crucial pressure on quarterback Matt Corral that forced the incompletion on the Rebels’ second failed fourth-down attempt.

“He’s really doing a good job,” Saban said after the game against Ole Miss. “He plays the run really well, he’s a great pass-rusher. The pass-drop stuff is something we’re continuing to work on him with, and he’s getting better and better at that. To play him and Will at outside ’backer allows us to do a lot of things.”

With Sanders out, Alabama will likely turn to sophomore Chris Braswell and freshman Dallas Turner to fill his spot. Both Braswell and Turner were rated as five-star recruits coming out of high school. Braswell has 10 tackles and one quarterback hurry while Turner has four stops and a quarterback hurry this season.

“They don’t have a lot of experience,” Saban said. “That’s two starters at the same position that we lost. You know Dallas Turner is a good, young player and he’s probably going to get more opportunity as well as Chris Braswell at that position. Those guys have played some, but they’re obviously going to get more opportunity now.

Alabama (5-0, 2-0 in the SEC) will face Texas A&M (3-2, 0-2) on Saturday at 7 p.m. CT inside Kyle Field. The game will be televised on CBS.