Things are looking good for Tua Tagovailoa and any NFL teams hoping to draft the star quarterback out of Alabama. Less than two months before the 2020 NFL Draft, doctors cleared Tagovailoa for all football activity, according to a report Monday from ESPN’s Laura Rutledge.
Tagovailoa is a projected first-round draft pick, and depending on who you ask, he could be selected as high as No. 2 by the Washington Redskins or as low as No. 5 by the Miami Dolphins — which, you know, is obviously pretty great still.
But any serious injury just before a player declares for the NFL Draft has the potential to impact his stock. So with this latest news, here’s a quick summary of what we know.
Tua Tagovailoa’s hip injury and surgery
During Alabama’s November 16 win over Mississippi State, Tagovailoa suffered a season-ending injury at the end of the first half. He had a dislocated hip with a posterior wall fracture, and he underwent successful surgery two days later.
This was the junior quarterback’s third injury and surgery in two seasons. In 2018, he had surgery to repair a high-ankle sprain between the SEC championship game and College Football Playoff semifinal, and then in October of 2019, he suffered the same injury but on the opposite ankle and had the same surgery to fix it.
He returned to the field for two games, LSU and Mississippi State, and dislocated his hip in the second.
Tua Tagovailoa cleared after almost four months
As we previously explained, Tagovailoa was medically cleared for all football activity, but he’ll still be taking a conservative approach moving forward, particularly for his scheduled April 9 pro day, Rutledge reported.
Tagovailoa has one more medical checkup scheduled before the draft. He will have an MRI on April 10, when doctors will check to see whether there is cartilage growth.
Alabama team physician Dr. Lyle Cain said he was elated with the results of the scan.
“If you had told me four months ago that the scan would look this good, I would have been ecstatic,” Cain told Rutledge.
However, according to a more specific report from the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, via NFL.com, Cain said it will still be several weeks, at least, before Tagovailoa is healthy enough for “NFL-level football activity,” and that timeline is “based on how his body responds to a steady progression of weight-training, running and drills related to quarterback play.”
Like any injury, those involved with Tua Tagovailoa’s rehab will closely monitor the script and his progression so as not to overload the hip. The draft prospect remains on track… https://t.co/QpIF1jjIUg
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 9, 2020
What has Tua Tagovailoa said about his injury recovery?
Not much, but at the NFL Combine he said, via 247Sports.com:
“This rehab process has been gradually getting up as far as workouts with what we’ve been doing. Just strengthening all the parts around the hip — the glute, the hamstring, the quad. Just being able to be ready that once March 9 hits and we’re cleared to go, I’ll be able to do everything.”
The 2020 NFL Draft begins Thursday, April 23 in Las Vegas.
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