ATHENS — Georgia’s Trent Thompson, the highly-touted freshman defensive lineman, didn’t play in Saturday’s game against Georgia Southern because of lingering ankle problems.

Thompson had started five of the previous six games, but has been dealing with ankle pain for several weeks.

“Both ankles were bothering him. It’s been that way for a little while now,” coach Mark Richt said on Sunday. “He’s been trying to fight through it. But we just feel like he wasn’t as ready as we’d like him to be, as far as getting full speed. And we want to get him to that point. He was having setbacks when he was playing week after week so we thought it’d be better to give him a chance to get healthy.”

It’s not clear what Thompson’s chances are to play this week at Georgia Tech.

It took a bit longer than expected, but Thompson has ended up becoming an impact player on Georgia’s defensive line, just as expected. Playing mostly on the interior line, Thompson had 13 tackles in four games (Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri and Florida) before the ankle injury came up.