Following a shoulder injury Auburn TigersDuring the loss to Vanderbilt two weeks ago, there was speculation that starting quarterback Payton Thorne would be unavailable against Louisiana-Monroe.

Thorne did not practice during the bye week, but performed well enough in practice this week to get the nod. Jason Caldwell 247Sports was among the first to announce that Thorne would get the green light for the microlight game.

“I feel a lot better,” Thorne said of his shoulder Tuesday. “Much better than last week, I received good treatment. Obviously, I worked every day to get things back to normal.

Auburn is coming off a bye week, which allowed Thorne to take his time recovering instead of rushing to get back on the field.

“Just in the training room getting treatment, paying attention to what I’m doing in the weight room,” Thorne said of how his recovery process has gone. “Coach Dobbs is obviously great, so I trust him completely on what he had me do in there. No throwing last week for me.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding Thorne’s performance in practice earlier this week, head coach Hugh Frozen was confident Thorne would be ready to go Wednesday.

“Not as far as I hoped with the shoulder,” Freeze said of Thorne’s condition Wednesday. “He thinks he’ll be OK, but he definitely wasn’t ready to play yesterday.”

This is good news for the Tigers who are fighting for the chance to play in a bowl game this winter.

“I’m just focusing on doing what I can to help us win and play the best I can and finish this thing the right way,” Thorne said. “Obviously it’s one game, one week at a time.”

Thorne and the Tigers begin against Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday at 11:45 a.m. CT. SEC Network will broadcast the telecast.