Alabama is down yet another defensive player as cornerback Trevon Diggs is out “indefinitely,” Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban announced before Monday’s first practice of Missouri week.

That makes five total defensive players out for the foreseeable future with injuries for top-ranked Alabama, as Diggs joined linebackers Terrell Lewis (knee) and Christopher Allen (knee), corner Jalyn Armour-Davis (knee) and safety Daniel Wright (shoulder) on the sideline.

Diggs’ injury occurred one week before the Crimson Tide faces a Missouri offense that boasts the nation’s 15th-best passing offense (318.4 yards per game) and No. 9 total offense (530.0).

“It’s going to be challenging,” Saban said. “We’re obviously very thin. We need some other guys to step up and develop, and the next guy up’s got to take the challenge and play well for us.

“But Patrick (Surtain II) has played quite a bit at his position, so we do have two guys that do have some experience. We just don’t have a lot of depth right now. And we’re going to have to get some other players to develop and be able to play for us.”

Here, BamaOnLine breaks down Alabama’s cornerback position after another injury.

Experienced starters: Shyheim Carter, Patrick Surtain II, Saivion Smith

Despite, losing Diggs for an undetermined amount of time, Alabama has three cornerbacks on its roster with first-team experience. Carter has played Star in nickel and safety in dime and has two pick-sixes. Surtain has started the last three games at cornerback after replacing Smith on the second play of the Ole Miss game. And Smith, clearly, has starting experience of his own.

“He’s going to have to step up,” redshirt junior safety Deionte Thompson said of Smith. “But we have other guys that are going to have to step up as well, not just at the cornerback position. There’s other guys that are ready, they just have to step up. It’s a big loss for us, so we have to rally all the troops and everybody has to step up.”

Alabama cornerback Patrick Surtain II

In the Tide’s nickel and dime formations, Smith and Surtain can play cornerback, while Carter plays Star. That’s not too far off from what we’ve seen on the field through the first six games.

Next-man-up candidates: Josh Jobe, Jared Mayden, Nigel Knott, D.J. Lewis

At Monday’s practice, Smith led the cornerbacks through individual drills with Surtain, Knott, Jobe and Lewis behind him. In late-game situations, Jobe and Knott have manned the corners for the second-team defense. Like Surtain, Jobe has played in every game this fall.

Carter continued to practice with the safeties, as did Mayden. But both Carter and Mayden have experience at corner. The latter could join the secondary in its dime package as either the safety or in the slot. Carter can do the same. Another player that could potentially be Alabama’s sixth defensive back off the bench is Kyriq McDonald, who can play safety and Star or Money.

Alabama doesn’t have much depth, but it does have a couple of options to replace Diggs.

“The next man has to step up,” Thompson said. “It’s always sad when you have a guy like that go down. Trevon worked so hard this season to get where he’s at. He was playing good football. It sucks for him. But next man up. ... It’s a big loss but we have to step up.

“Us, the older guys, we have to get the younger guys on the same page as us. We have to bring them in for extra film meetings, meet with them one-on-one, teach them the adjustments so they can be ready to play winning football.”

Alabam will host Missouri on Saturday, Oct. 13, at Bryant-Denny Stadium at 6 p.m. (ESPN).

Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).

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