Payton Thorne, who missed practice during Auburn’s bye week with a shoulder injury, is expected to start against Louisiana-Monroe, 247Sports reports.

Thorne injured his shooting shoulder in the second half of Auburn’s loss to Vanderbilt on Nov. 2. When asked about Thorne’s development on Wednesday, Hugh Freeze said Thorne was “not ready to play” as of Tuesday’s practice.

“I haven’t progressed as much as I would have hoped with the shoulder,” Freeze said on the SEC coaches teleconference on Wednesday. “He thinks he’ll be fine, but he definitely wasn’t ready to play yesterday.”

Thorne was more optimistic about playing when he told reporters Tuesday.

“I’d better go. I trust the process we do in the training room,” Thorne said. “Knock on wood, I haven’t missed a game yet in my career. “I don’t plan on doing that anytime soon.”

Both during the bye week and the following Monday, Freeze insinuated that the coaching staff had “discussed” a quarterback change for the final three games of the season.

“It’s certainly not an indication that I don’t think he’s playing pretty solid here,” Freeze said Monday. “But you start to think about the big picture. “And that’s not always the easiest thing to do because you love your players and you want what’s best for all of them and what gives us the best chance of winning the remaining three games.”

Thorne said he had not had any discussions with staff about a possible change when asked Tuesday.

Auburn’s game against ULM is scheduled to kick off at 11:45 a.m. Saturday.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports AL.com. You can follow him at: @peter_rauterkus or email him [email protected]M.