The rehabilitation of Miami Dolphins rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s hip is showing continued progress, with his physical therapist offering an optimistic update on the newcomer’s status.
Kevin Wilk has been closely monitoring the progress of Tagovailoa at the Champion Sports Medicine facility in Birmingham, Ala. Wilk offered a progress report on the signal-caller’s efforts to come back from major surgery that was performed on his hip last November.
“He’s doing miraculously well,” said Wilk.
“The miraculous part is that he healed so well. The second part is, he’s been so well at getting his strength back, which usually takes a long time after something like this.”
That news should please Dolphins head coach Brian Flores and the team’s general manager Chris Grier, who took a risk in April by selecting Tagovailoa as the fifth overall pick in the NFL draft.
Prior to the start of the 2019 college football season, Tagovailoa was seen as the consensus top pick in the draft, but two injuries during the course of the season caused such enthusiasm to wane.
The second of those injuries required major hip surgery, which potentially put Tagovailoa’s football career in question. There was some debate as to whether he would even enter the draft or be able to play in 2020.
Tagovailoa’s rehabilitation days entail 3 1/2 hours of arduous work. The primary focus has been not only on rehabilitating his hip, but also strengthening his throwing shoulder and working on his ankles after having suffered high-ankle sprains.
The rehabilitation process of Tagovailoa has been closely monitored by Dolphins head trainer Kyle Johnston, who’s gotten frequent updates from Wilk.
It’s clear that Tagovailoa is all business during his rehabilitation sessions, which has included post-workout efforts at learning the Dolphins’ offense.
“You can barely talk to him when he’s at the clinic. He’s either doing exercises or his face is buried in the iPad, learning the system,” Wilk said.
“He’s laser-focused. One of the most focused I’ve ever seen anybody, to be honest.”
Tagovailoa has begun the process of moving to South Florida, which ordinarily would have already taken place. However, the coronavirus pandemic has prevented Tagovailoa and other Dolphins from working out at the team facility.
As much progress as Tagovailoa has made, he’s still likely to at least begin the season as a backup to veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick. However, given Tagovailoa’s drive, it wouldn’t be a total shock to see him behind center against New England on Sept. 13.
