Getty Tua Tagovailoa has battled through a knee injury during the 2018 season.
Tua Tagovailoa has not missed a game this season, but the Alabama quarterback has been battling a knee injury. Signs of the injury first started to show in October, and it was referenced to by AL.com as a “sprained knee.” Tagovailoa spoke about the injury after the Tennessee game last month.
“I think he stepped on my leg and then my knee kinda, it just buckled,” Tagovailoa told AL.com. “But that was it…I feel something and I want to make sure I’m good before I get up…I don’t feel it every play. It’s just certain movements that I make that I can feel it but other than that …”
Alabama has been mostly quiet on Tgovailoa’s injury. Nick Saban declined to rest his quarterback against The Citadel and bristled at reporters who asked him if he considered it.
“No. … No. Why would we do that? I mean, (are you trying) to say this is not an important game or he doesn’t need to play?” Saban told the Montgomery Advertiser. “I think we need to do a better job (from) the people playing around him, doing what they’re supposed to do so he doesn’t get hit. And he needs to do a better job of stepping up in the pocket and getting rid of the ball, which he had several opportunities to do. Some of these hits could be avoided by better execution, and I think that’s what we’re going to focus on, not trying to take a guy out of the game so he can’t improve or do what he needs to do to get better.”
Tua Tagovailoa Looked Much Healthier Against The Citadel
Tagovailoa looked good against The Citadel throwing for 340 yards and three touchdowns. The Alabama quarterback only threw four incomplete passes and added a rushing touchdown.
Tagovailoa did initially leave the Alabama-Missouri game back in October, but Saban downplayed the injury after the game.
“Tua could’ve gone back into the game. He wanted to go back into the game. … We don’t think there’s any issue with it,” Saban said after the Missouri game per 247 Sports.
Prior to the Missouri game, Saban called the injury a “sprained knee.” Here’s a look at Tagovailoa exiting the game against Missouri back in October.
“Tua has taken every rep in practice,” Saban said per 247 Sports. “He does have a sprained knee. We did put a brace on it just to kind of protect him, but he’s been able to do all the work in practice, so that’s not an issue.”
As Bammer Hammer noted, Tagovailoa did look much better last week against The Citadel.
Tua appeared near to full health on Saturday. Running without the knee brace, he discarded sliding to safety at the end of runs. As Nick said earlier in the week, Tua looked to have recovered from his knee injury.