Georgia offensive lineman Trinton Sturdivant will miss the rest of 2009 after injuring his left knee in the 24-10 loss at Oklahoma State Saturday.

The redshirt sophomore tore the anterior cruciate ligament after hyper-extending the joint in the third quarter.

Sturdivant endured the same injury in preseason last year, costing him the ’08 season.

“I saw him today, he’s probably a little bit surprised by it because he really didn’t feel like that was the situation after the ballgame and we weren’t predicting that,” said coach Mark Richt. “He seemed more philosophical, he wasn’t just in the tank. He said, ‘I’ve got two choices; I’ve got to give up or go fight again. We know that he’s going to fight.”

Richt said senior Vince Vance, who took Sturdivant’s place following his injury Saturday, will most likely replace Sturdivant, but that also Josh Davis was close to retuning from a shoulder injury.

Current starters Clint Boling and Cordy Glenn could play tackle if needed, Richt said.

“We know that Trinton is going to battle; he’s got goals in his life and he’ll be back next year,” Richt said.

Swine flu hits Bulldogs’ Pugh

While quarterback Joe Cox was experiencing flu-like symptoms and did play in No. 14 Georgia’s 24-10 loss to No. 9 Oklahoma State Saturday, another teammate was back home suffering from the swine flu.

Coach Mark Richt said in his post-game press conference that Cox had been tested for swine flu and the results were negative, he did say that redshirt freshman safety Makiri Pugh tested positive for the H1N1 virus.

Pugh, who actually attended the same high school as Cox in Charlotte, N.C., did not make the trip to Stillwater.

Cox did not travel with the team but made it to Oklahoma on a team booster’s plane Friday night. He downplayed the significance of his illness on his hit-and-miss performance Saturday.

“I felt pretty good,” he said. “I wasn’t 100 percent, but I definitely felt good enough to play a football game.”