Dabo Swinney provided injury updates at Clemson’s media outing on Tuesday, including an update on a senior safety.

The Tigers’ head coach said the only real “long-term” injury that the team is dealing with right now is Tyler Venables.

Venables, who’s entering his fourth year at Clemson, just underwent surgery on his hip.

“He had a little tear in his hip labrum, so he had to have that fixed that yesterday as a matter of fact,” Swinney said. “So, it was a decision with him, try to play through it and then maybe do it after the season, and really it was kind of T-Bone’s decision to go ahead and get it done, which I’m really excited about because he’s made a decision that he really wants to really use all of his eligibility. I know it seems like he’s been here a long time, but he’s got three years to play two.”

Injuries may lead to Venables redshirting. Swinney said the Tigers are planning to redshirt him if they can, though it’s possible he could return to the field late in the season.

“As y’all know, he’s been around. He’s battled a lot of injuries – torn hamstrings, he had the other hip, he’s had a shoulder – he’s had a lot of setbacks,” Swinney said. “But he’s such a great player and a valuable guy. What we’re going to try to do with him is kind of take the long-haul approach and try to redshirt him this year if we can, which will be a real positive for us for next year because it’d give us a veteran guy back because we’re going to lose some really veteran guys at that position.

“But our goal is to try to get him back this year at some point. Maybe let him play the last few games of the season and still keep his year and come back next year as a redshirt junior or fifth-year senior, whatever he wants to do. So, that’s really the only long-term thing we’re dealing with right now.”

Venables enters 2023 credited with 98 tackles (5.5 for loss), a sack, an interception and seven pass breakups in 716 defensive snaps over 34 games (two starts).

Last season, the 5-foot-11, 210-pounder was credited with 37 tackles (one for loss), a pass breakup and a team-high seven special teams tackles while playing 240 defensive snaps over 10 games.

We are excited to announce our second annual Dear Old Clemson event for the freshmen football class.  Come out on July 22 at 10 AM at the indoor football facility for a meet and greet autograph session with the scholarship freshmen from the 2023 class. Clemson coordinators Garrett Riley and Wes Goodwin will be attendance and speak at the event.

Get your tickets today at Dear Old Clemson.