ALABAMA NOTEBOOK: Flu affecting Tide players

TUSCALOOSA — Alabama coach Nick Saban said his program is taking steps to keep the impact of the H1N1 influenza to a minimum.

Still, preseason All-American nose guard Terrence Cody has missed the past two days of practice and several other players were also missing at Thursday’s workout, which was forced indoors as thunderstorms pounded the area.

“We have a little bit of flu going around,” Saban said after the workout in shells. “We also have some guys that have some respiratory problems, upper respiratory infection.”

The coach said depending on a player’s symptoms, there is a protocol for what happens next — including testing to see if it is flu.

“The guys that have had it, we’ve quarantined, kept them in isolation so they would not spread it to other guys,” Saban said. “We’re doing a lot of hygiene and nutrition-type stuff as preventative measures so that we don’t get this throughout our team.”

Receiver Darius Hanks said players were given a packet of Kleenex, hand sanitizer and other precautionary items.

“Our medical staff has done a really good job of supplying every locker with wipes, hand sanitizer and stuff like that,” offensive lineman Mike Johnson said. “There’s hand sanitizer every time we walk into Bryant (Hall) to eat. Just little stuff like that. Hopefully, we can stay out of that mess.”

Saban said illness on the team hasn’t been widespread, but he noticed it became more frequent when school started and the walk-ons joined the squad.

“We probably had four or five guys that eventually had the flu and haven’t been at practice,” the coach said. “And you had four or five other guys who sort of had the upper respiratory thing without the fever and really not the flu and they’ve been able to manage their way through it.”

Cornerback Kareem Jackson said players were taking vitamins and trying to keep their hands clean.

“It’s not a really big issue,” Jackson said.

But Cody was one of the players under the weather. Jackson added some humor to the interview room.

“I didn’t know he had it til yesterday,” Jackson said. “I saw him today. He told me he hadn’t ate in two days — but I find that hard to believe. I told him you can’t kid a kidder and I just left it at that. Told him, ‘I hope you feel well.’”

Johnson, the senior left guard who often sees Cody up close, was in no hurry to see his teammate until he feels better.

“Hopefully, he can knock that out before I have any chance of contamination, because I don’t need any of that,” Johnson said.

Saban said most of the players who have been ill have been sidelined about three days.

“I’m no doctor, I’m not a physician, I don’t really want to compare or predict because I really don’t know, but the guys that have been sick have been sick for two or three days,” the coach said.

It’s certainly a campus-wide problem. The university is providing hand sanitizer stations in common areas of residence halls, dining areas and computer labs, and has ordered individual hand sanitizer bottles to provide to students in residence halls and in high traffic areas of campus.

More than 99 percent of all flu samples tested during the past four weeks were positive for the H1N1 influenza, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.

Between May and August 22, Alabama experienced about 1,300 swine flu cases and two deaths. Nationally, 522 people have died and about 8,000 people have been hospitalized as a result of the swine flu.

“We’re doing as much as we can to try to prevent this,” Saban said. “We’re very hopeful this does not become an issue for college football or sports this fall. Hopefully, management things we’re doing will help us not have an issue or a problem.”
Game prep begins
Fifth-ranked Alabama began game preparations for the Sept. 5 season opener against No. 7 Virginia Tech on Thursday.

Johnson said the indoor workout helped “just kind of getting our legs back under us.”

“Kind of a light day today. Starting off preparing for next week,” Johnson said.

Saban said his team’s mental toughness would be challenged in the Georgia Dome.

“We schedule games like this game because it’s kind of like Judgment Day for all of us in terms of where we are as a team,” Saban said after practice. “This is the first time this particular team is going to play somebody that is going to be a malicious opponent, no matter who it is, but it is certainly one we respect.”