Michigan Football Injury Report Week 1

Michigan walks into Saturday night's opener against Western Michigan healthier than most teams coming out of a first camp under a new staff. That doesn't mean everybody is at 100 percent.

Kyle Whittingham spent Monday laying out who's available, who's being managed, and who's already done for the year. Here's where those five names stand on our Michigan Football injury report before a 7:30 kickoff on NBC.

Rod Moore is playing, and he's playing a lot

That's the headline the secondary has been waiting on for two years.

Moore missed all of 2024 after tearing his ACL in spring practice, then got three games into 2025 before the knee shut him down again. A January cleanup for scar tissue put him on a better path, and he's been ramping through camp on a pitch count.

Whittingham's wording this week was careful and still encouraging. Moore is "on the come." He'll play Saturday. He'll play quite a bit. He's just not all the way back to where he was before the latest setback.

The staff is treating this as a marathon, which is the right way to handle a three-time captain who has barely played since the 2023 title run. Chris Bracy has taken a lot of the safety work in camp. But Moore on the field in meaningful snaps is a different ceiling for Jay Hill's defense.

John Henry Daley is a full go

Henry is perhaps the most relieving news of all.

Daley followed the staff from Utah after an All-American 2025 season that ended with a torn Achilles in November. The recovery timeline was always going to be the question, and Whittingham has now answered it more than once: Daley is taking every rep with no limitations, and he's more explosive and quicker than he's ever been.

If that holds up under a live rush Saturday night, Michigan's pass rush has its centerpiece and should be among the best in the country.

Dominic Nichols is available

Nichols missed several days in camp with what Whittingham called a minor tweak — the kind of thing that pulls a starter out of practice without changing the plan for Week 1. He'd been one of the better stories of camp before that, and he's expected to line up opposite Daley.

Michigan can live with him at less than 100 percent against Western Michigan. It can't live with both edges limited when the schedule turns.

Andrew Babalola is out

That one's settled.

The former five-star tackle missed all of 2025 with a torn ACL, then hit a setback in camp after showing real progress. Whittingham said Monday he remains "on the shelf" and won't be available this week "barring anything miraculous."

Blake Frazier is the likely answer at left tackle while Babalola is out. This isn't a season-long situation and he should be cleared soon.

Ace Hamilton is out for the season

The true freshman interior offensive lineman suffered a lower-right-leg injury in fall camp, and Whittingham confirmed it will keep him out all of 2026.

Hamilton was a three-star out of St. John's in Washington, D.C., and had already been mentioned as a young piece with a future inside. He'll rehab, redshirt, and try to get back in the mix for 2027.

This is the one real long-term loss coming out of camp.

That's the board

Daley and Nichols give the front a chance to look like the strength of this team tomorrow night. Moore gives the secondary its most experienced voice, even on a managed snap count. Babalola's absence is a Week 1 problem on the offensive line, not a season problem. Hamilton's already belongs to next year.

The Big House gets its first look at this staff and team Saturday night. The injury report isn't empty, but it's a lot cleaner than it could have been.