Dolphins have 'no idea' if Tua Tagovailoa will play in finale - ESPN

CLEVELAND — Surgery is not currently in the plans for Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who missed Sunday's 20-3 win over the Cleveland Browns with a hip injury.

Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa suffered the injury against the Houston Texans in Week 15 and was able to play through it against San Francisco last week. However, he aggravated the injury on a play vs. the 49ers and it did not progress the way the team had hoped this past week.

Tagovailoa was limited in both of Miami's practices leading up to Sunday's game, and he was downgraded to doubtful Saturday.

«You try to forecast how things will heal based upon the only thing that you have to work with, which is the previous week's forecast,» McDaniel said. «So, we were hoping and anticipating for a timeline similar to that, and as the week progressed, we didn't see the improvement we'd hoped.… Ultimately, he absolutely wanted to play. It wasn't a pain tolerance thing; that was not in the equation for him.

»… The main thing was that he not only was super susceptible to a much more significant injury based upon that injury, if he were to fall in harm's way, but a major factor was the lack of strength due to the injury and his inability as we forecast to protect himself and his teammates within the pocket doing the things that he normally has to do."

After playing all 18 games in 2023, Tagovailoa has now missed a career-high five regular-season games this year. McDaniel said that while surgery isn't currently deemed necessary, he has «no idea» whether Tagovailoa will play in the regular-season finale next weekend against the New York Jets.

The Dolphins coach did confirm that Tagovailoa's hip injury was not related to the compound fracture he suffered