Earlier today, Tua Tagovailoa was carted off the field in agony after suffering an apparent hip injury.
From earlier:
Alabama was up 35-7 with three minutes left in the first half. Clearly, they’ve got this one in the bag and were on their way to rebounded nicely from last week’s loss to LSU. In a decision that is going to be dissected on Alabama sports radio call-in shows for years to come, Saban let Tagovailoa stay in the game to complete the half despite the fact that he had already been a game-time decision headed into the day.
Tua hurt pic.twitter.com/LMdkCyaZwm
— Heavens! (@HeavensFX) November 16, 2019
Now, after some early injury speculation had Tua likely missing a lot of time, we know that he will indeed miss the remainder of the season thanks to The Athletic’s Aaron Suttles:
Breaking News: Tua Tagovailoa is out for the season with a dislocated hip with a posterior wall fracture, a person with knowledge of the situation tells me.
— Aaron Suttles (@AaronSuttles) November 16, 2019
Tagovailoa was immediately airlifted to a Birmingham hospital, as well:
Alabama officials confirmed to the AP that Tagovailoa was flown by helicopter from Starkville, Miss., to the St. Vincent Medical Center in Birmingham, Ala.
This is obviously terrible news not just because Tua will miss the remainder of the season, but because this is the kind of severe injury that could certainly jeopardize his professional career as well. He may have lost his lock on the #1 overall pick this year, but he was certainly still slated to be an early pick, and now all of that is up in the air.
There’s also the obvious question of why he was playing; it was a blowout already, and he had come back early from his ankle injury for last week’s LSU game. It’s more than fair to wonder whether that injury could have been a catalyst for the hip injury, even if it was only because of a reduced mobility. Or, hey, maybe it was just a freak hit. It just plain sucks, though. Hopefully he makes a full and quick recovery.
