Alabama players will be allowed to go home for Christmas, but they will do so under the same COVID-19 protocols they observed last season. During his Monday news conference, Nick Saban addressed his team’s COVID protocols ahead of its Cotton Bowl matchup against Cincinnati in the College Football Playoff.

The head coach admitted he is concerned about the spread of the virus as it has caused recent disruptions across NFL, NBA, NHL and college basketball. In addition, he said he has instructed his players to be diligent in their holiday celebrations in order to “have the best opportunity to stay safe.”

“We let our players go home for the break last year, and we educate the families,” Saban said. “We give them a care package with everything they need to stay safe, and we have implemented all the protocols here since we’ve been back that we had last year in terms of wearing masks and meetings, washing hands, social distancing in meetings. And we’re encouraging the players to do that when they leave here.”

Monday, Saban revealed that more than “over 90 percent of the players have gotten booster shots.” Alabama dealt with minimal COVID-19 absences during its national title run last year and has not had to deal with many complications due to the virus yet this season as well.

“They’ve really kind of bought in to trying to do everything they can to stay safe,” Saban said of his players, “but there’s no guarantees, so we wanna use every protocol we can to help them stay safe.”

Alabama will practice Tuesday and Wednesday before taking the next three days off for Christmas. From there, the team will travel to Texas for its Cotton Bowl matchup against Cincinnati on Dec. 31.

No. 1 Alabama (12-1) will play No. 4 Cincinnati (13-0) inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas as one of two semifinal games in the College Football Playoff. The winner will advance to the championship game on Jan. 10.