Tahj Shamsid-Deen (separated shoulders) out for the year

AUBURN -- Tigers guard Tahj Shamsid-Deen will miss the remainder of the season after suffering yet another separated shoulder during Auburn's loss to Arkansas on Tuesday.

Auburn coach Bruce Pearl announced Shamsid-Deen, who started 15 games and averaged 6.1 points while being the team's best defender, would be shutdown on Friday and will have his first surgery on Thursday.

"Unfortunately this is his fifth or sixth dislocation and now he's had a couple on each shoulder. ... He's going to need surgery on both shoulders and he's going to shut it down," Pearl said. "It was something that when it got to the point where he was having to decide whether or not he should go for a loose ball or not, whether or not he should set or could set a screen or not, whether he should reach and give help and try to strip and rip. ...

"At this point now we don't want there to be any more damage and he's been a real warrior battling through a lot of pain."

Shamsid-Deen separated his right shoulder during the season opener and left shoulder during the Jan. 21 game against Mississippi State. He played though both injuries with his shoulder heavily wrapped and scored in double-figures in two of the last four games but was a shell of himself on the defensive end as he was limited by the shoulder injuries.

"I think he is our best perimeter defender, and I don't think he has been as strong defensively as he would have been if he were healthy," Pearl said. "It has been a real challenge for him. He is well coached defensively. He is well drilled defensively. He is in the right place at the right time all of the time, he just couldn't make as many plays."

The loss of Shamsid-Deen comes at an even worse time for Auburn (11-13, 3-8 SEC), which could be without guard Antoine Mason for at least Saturday's game at Georgia, if not the remainder of the season as well, as he supports his family and ailing father, Anthony Mason, who suffered a heart attack and was fighting for his life Tuesday night, as first reported by longtime New York Post columnist Peter Vecsey.