It remains unknown -- or truly undecided -- if USC star freshman Zachariah Branch will make his return to action Saturday in the No. 10-ranked Trojans' road game at No 21 Notre Dame.

USC coach Lincoln Riley was asked about Branch's status on his Thursday morning Zoom call with media and he reiterated much of what he had said two days earlier.

"Progressing. Still hasn’t been a full participant yet. I do think he’s making progress. We’ll kind of watch and see," Riley said. "He’s going to need to continue to make some jumps here to be ready for us. So hopefully he can continue to progress over the next few days. He’s in a better place than he was last week, but he’s not able to do everything yet. He’s eager, but we obviously want to be smart and make sure that we turn him loose at the right time."

It has not been revealed what injury Branch is dealing with that caused him to miss the last two games.

The five-star freshman has been a missing dynamic to USC's special teams, as he already has both a punt return touchdown and kickoff return touchdown this season as well as 13 receptions for 178 yards and 2 scores in four games played.

"Yeah, we've missed him, sure. He's a dynamic player, obviously ... special teams-wise and offensively," Riley had said Tuesday. "... I think we'll get him back sooner rather than later. We don't think it's long-term, but we've also got to be smart. We've got a long stretch of football ahead of us, so we're trying to obviously, excited to get him back when the time is [right], but we've got to be smart when that time is."