Will Ahmad Hardy play this week? Why Mizzou star’s return still may take time

Ahmad Hardy is on the path toward a return, but Mizzou fans shouldn’t necessarily expect to see the All-American on the football field this coming Saturday.After Hardy missed the Tigers’ opening seven games of the season, Missouri football head coach Eli Drinkwitz posted to social media on Sunday afternoon that the All-American running back will be back in practice this coming week in Columbia.“After consulting with our medical team,” Drinkwitz posted, “Ahmad Hardy will return to practice this week. Our medical staff will determine his return to game action.”More: Ahmad Hardy to return to Missouri football practice this week, per Eli DrinkwitzWhile that’s positive news after more than two months of sparing updates on the star running back’s status, it’s still highly unlikely that Hardy features for the Tigers in their next game, which is this coming Saturday, Oct. 31, against Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas.Hardy has missed Mizzou’s opening seven games of the season while he continues to recover from an offseason gunshot wound that struck the femur. Hardy was shot in the upper leg in May while attending a concert in Laurel, Mississippi. The reason Missouri fans should not expect to see Hardy against Arkansas is because Drinkwitz has consistently said he needs to see two full weeks of practice before he considers playing Hardy. The head coach said Oct. 6 he wanted to make sure Hardy was able to operate at game speed and “protect himself in a manner that he would have to to compete in the SEC.”Using that two-week requirement, and the timing and wording of Drinkwitz's update Sunday, which stated Hardy “will return to practice this week" rather than he hasreturned to practice, the running back is highly unlikely to be available for the Tigers’ game against the Razorbacks. Mizzou has shown no indication that it will rush Hardy's return.The required ramp-up period, however, does not necessarily rule Hardy out from playing in Mizzou’s next game after Arkansas, which is Nov. 7 against Texas in Columbia — one of the marquee games on MU's schedule this year.With a full week of full-speed practice before the Tigers face Arkansas and then another week without setbacks before facing the Longhorns, Hardy could — using the team’s two-week criteria — at least be in consideration to face UT.With other injuries, Drinkwitz has said that the team has a protocol that players must be able to practice by the Thursday before a game to be in consideration to play. Hardy’s status on the team’s SEC availability reports Wednesday, Nov. 4, and Thursday, Nov. 5, should indicate whether or not that he can play against Texas.Mizzou (5-2, 2-2 SEC) has five games left in the regular season.More: When is Missouri football’s next game? Details for Mizzou at ArkansasJamal Roberts currently ranks No. 2 in the SEC, behind only Tennessee’s DeSean Bishop, with 867 rushing yards on the season. The Tigers, however, have struggled to find production behind Roberts. Backup running back Malae Fonoti was ruled out for the season after sustaining an ACL tear in Week 1, and Xai’Shaun Edwards has managed 132 yards on 39 carries — less than 19 yards and six carries per game — as Mizzou’s primary No. 2 in the run game.Hardy was viewed as one of the nation’s top returning running backs this year. The junior, who transferred to Missouri after a standout freshman season at Louisiana Monroe, rushed for an SEC-leading and program-record 1,649 yards last year.He rushed for 100+ yards in eight games, including a 300-yard, three-touchdown performance against Mississippi State. Hardy was a finalist for the Doak Walker Award and was named a consensus first-team All-American in 2025.All indications now suggest that he will be able to return this season, which wasn’t always a certainty. While it likely won’t be this coming Saturday, it seems that the wait to see Hardy in a Missouri uniform again is nearing an end. This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Will Ahmad Hardy play this week? Why Mizzou star’s return still may take time