Any sense of satisfaction Auburn’s defenders had following a rousing 61-34 rout of the offense in Saturday’s scrimmage was tempered by concern for an injured teammate.

Starting safety Mike McNeil suffered an injury to his right leg during the closed practice, the severity of which was enough to prompt several emergency vehicles to arrive at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“I made the tackle and I heard somebody scream, ‘It’s my leg,’” cornerback Neiko Thorpe said.

“Nobody likes to see a guy get hurt, period,” head coach Gene Chizik said. “Whether it’s that or whether it’s a guy twisting an ankle, nobody likes to see these guys out here trying really hard and trying to do what we ask them to do and get hurt.

“That’s part of the game and we don’t like it, but when you’ve got tough guys that love the game, they deal with what comes and Michael’s going to do that.”

McNeil, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound rising junior, made 65 tackles last season, second on the team to fellow safety Zac Etheridge. Safeties coach Tommy Thigpen said sophomores Mike Slade, Christian Thompson and Drew Cole will take McNeil’s place in the interim.

Coaches hesitated to expound on the severity of the injury or how long McNeil could be out.