NEW ORLEANS — Ole Miss tailback Kewan Lacy has declared himself “perfectly fine” to play in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia.

“It was just a little stinger in my AC joint,” Lacy said on Tuesday at the Sugar Bowl media day at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, explaining the injury that forced him to leave the Rebels’ 41-10 College Football Playoff win over Tulane on Dec. 20.

“I’m perfectly fine. I’m ready to go.”

Lacy was healthy in the teams’ meeting earlier this season, won by Georgia 43-35 in Athens on Oct. 18.

Now, like then, Lacy expects the Bulldogs’ No. 4-ranked run defense to make stopping the Rebels rushing game a priority when the team meet at 8 p.m. on Thursday at Caesar’s Superdome.

UGA held Lacy to 31 yards on 12 carries, even as the Ole Miss star managed two rushing touchdowns.

“You can tell when there’s extra defenders in a box,” Lacy said, “but that’s nothing new, throughout the season, there’s been a lot of teams that have done that.”

And yet, the 5-foot-11, 200-pound sophomore from Dallas, Texas, was still able to rush for 1,366 yards this season, which ranks second in the SEC and eighth in the nation.

“We’ve got to come out with the right mentality,” Lacy said of the upcoming game with Georgia. “Come out there and just come out hot, come out starting fires.”

Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who led the Rebels against UGA with 42 yards and two touchdowns on nine carries, knows the challenge that lies ahead.

“Yeah, it’s Georgia, they’re going to have huge guys,” Chambliss said. “They’re going to have five stars, they’re going to have four stars that are hungry.

“Their defensive line is always stacked with dudes that can be in the NFL any given day.”