This Michigan football star is playing through injury right now

After being the star of the Wolverines’ 31-7 victory over Rutgers in Week 4, Mike Sainristil left the game a bit early due to some sort of injury. Last weekend, against Nebraska, the Michigan football star was limited quite a bit — he only played 16 snaps, which was far less than Josh Wallace (43) and Will Johnson (33). On the ‘Inside Michigan Football’ show with Jon Jansen, head coach Jim Harbaugh explained that, while Sainristil is not sidelined, he is playing through something and being limited right now.

This Michigan football star is playing through injury right now

Mike Sainristil, Michigan’s fifth-year captain and one of the top defensive players on the team — perhaps in the entire Big Ten as well — is a crucial part of the Wolverines’ top-ranked defense. That said, for the time being, it sounds like Jesse Minter and the Wolverines must find a way to play around yet another injury in the defensive backfield.

So far this year, it seems that all of Michigan’s cornerbacks and safety — including Mike Sainristil, Rod Moore, Will Johnson, Keon Sabb, Amorion Walker, Makari Paige, and others — have been injured or limited thus fall. Right now, Jim Harbaugh and his staff are looking for ways to get Sainristil into the game without overusing him and worsening his injury issue.

“(UMass transfer) Josh Wallace was a great contributor, another guy who got a game ball this week,” Jim Harbaugh explained. “But Josh Wallace stepped in at nickel. Mike (Sainristil) had to limit some of his reps. And three, four stops for Josh Wallace. He’s been a heck of an addition. Every single one of the transfers has been a really great addition to the team.”

“Freaky” ability for Mike Sainristil, says Jim Harbaugh

Harbaugh added that Mike Sainristil has a “superhuman” ability to play through injury — a trait that he also described as “freaky.”

“They get the treatment, they get the rehab, they find a pad that protects them,” the Michigan football head coach explained. “Just the ability to count whatever that time of being out would have been for a normal person; football players seem to have that ability. Some even more than others. Mike Sainristil right now, it’s freaky. It’s freaky in that way.”

Jim Harbaugh also said much of the same about Rod Moore on Monday afternoon — there are a few Wolverines that are still playing but will likely be quite limited until big games like Penn State roll around. That said, it looks like Will Johnson is back to 100% (or close) judging by his snap count, and, as Harbaugh pointed out, there are a number of transfers that are stepping up in a big way so far.

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