Tua Tagovailoa undergoes procedure on injured ankle, could return in time for LSU
By John Buhler
Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had a procedure done on his injured ankle. He will miss Alabama’s next game versus the Arkansas Razorbacks.
While the Alabama Crimson Tide defeated their cross-divisional rival Tennessee Volunteers in the Third Saturday of October easily and for the 13th year in a row, Alabama did lose its starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to an ankle injury suffered late in the first half on a hit from behind.
Tagovailoa would leave the game and head to the hospital to get his ankle checked out. His replacement Mac Jones played okay filling in for him, but Alabama should be concerned about their star signal-caller’s health going forward. Alabama head coach Nick Saban issued a statement on Tagovailoa’s ankle injury.
“Tua Tagovailoa suffered a high ankle sprain last night against Tennessee,” said Saban. “Our physicians performed a successful tight-rope procedure on his right ankle this morning. This is the same injury, but the opposite ankle that Tua injured last season. Tua will miss next week’s game against Arkansas, but we expect a full and speedy recovery.”
Alabama will not need Tagovailoa to beat the snot out of lowly Arkansas next week. The Hogs can’t even pull off a fake punt properly under head coach Chad Morris. No wonder they can’t win SEC games. Look for Jones to get some huge playing experience on Saturday before Alabama enters its bye week before the huge game against the LSU Tigers in three weeks.
As long as Tagovailoa is back for the Tide by that game versus LSU, then Alabama should feel great about its chances to win the SEC West, get to Atlanta to play the winner of Georgia-Florida in the SEC Championship and reach the College Football Playoff for the sixth year in a row. But should he be out for that LSU game, we’ll have to give the Bayou Bengals the edge in that game.
LSU is playing outstanding football for head coach Ed Orgeron and will Joe Burrow playing like the Heisman Trophy front-runner as the Tigers star quarterback. Tagovailoa has the dynamism to lead Alabama back to Atlanta, but the Tide will need him in the worst way against LSU in a few weeks.
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