The cutting-edge ankle surgery he received was designed in part to speed up his recovery from a sprained right ankle. Tagovailoa had the same surgery last year on his other ankle and returned three weeks later with an outstanding playoff semifinal performance over Oklahoma. Indeed he returned, though Tagovailoa shied away from running with the ball and played with a slight limp as the game wore on. But there he was in the lineup, and by the time he was injured, just before halftime, he had Alabama well ahead. up to Tagovailoa, called Saturday’s injury a freak occurrence and said Tagovailoa moved well in a pregame workout, perhaps better than he had the week before.

Source: New York Times November 16, 2019 19:58 UTC