Update on Tua's back injury: questionable for Thursday, but hoping to play

Tua Tagovailoa had a simple answer when asked whether he expected to be able to start for the Miami Dolphins when they face the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night.

"That's the plan," Tua said before adding this caveat: "Doing everything I can to get back out there. Hopefully I can get out there and play."

Head coach Mike McDaniel wasn't definitive, either, when he preceded his quarterback at the podium in the press conference at the Baptist Health Training Complex.

McDaniel said he was confident about Tua's availability based on the progress his back injury has made since Sunday.

"Had this been an actual real practice on a normal week, Tua would be limited," McDaniel said after the team conducted a walk-through. "And he would be questionable for the game. Just him talking to me. I can tell in his voice, he's literally going to do everything he can and in his power, so collectively, we’re always basically .,.. I know that he's going to do everything he can to play, so I'll know if he doesn't play that it literally was not possible. And we're just taking measures accordingly for Teddy (Bridgewater) beyond that. But happy with the way he's so far progressed and feel very optimistic because of how he's going about it."

...

"So we'll probably just take it [the Tua decision] as long as we have to before we can be convicted, but at some point there has to be … it won't be five minutes before kickoff. I know that. Probably some time on Wednesday, but if we have to we'll move it to Thursday morning.”

finfanatic wrote:Yikes!  I sure hope we don't have to play Bridgewater.

DolFan 316 wrote:So we know Tua really does have a back injury. Strike one against the NFLPA and media for calling him a liar and accusing the Fins of "making it up" to "cover" for his 'obvious concussion"

Also, they realized any "investigation" wouldn't be completed in time to keep Tua from facing the Bengals so now it's going to conclude in "1-2 weeks".

Pure bullshit, even by 2020s standards.

JMP wrote:McDaniel stated that Tua passed several concussion tests, so this is a complete non-issue.  I don't know what the league thinks they are going to find out in 2 weeks that isn't already known, but unless they are planning to create false test results there's nothing to see here. What a joke - as usual, with this league.