Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa to return to practice Wednesday

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will take a small step Wednesday toward returning to football.

Coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa, who has been in the concussion protocol since Sept. 29, will return to practice in a limited capacity, though he will not play Sunday against the Vikings.

“We just miss his personality. He’s a guy that we rely on,” McDaniel said, adding that Tagovailoa will take things slowly, working out and throwing individually.

Tagovailoa suffered a concussion in the first half of a Thursday night game against the Cincinnati Bengals and had to be stretched off the field and taken to a hospital.

He had not practiced since then and did not travel with the Dolphins for last Sunday’s game, which they lost to the New York Jets.

Four days before the Cincinnati game, Tagovailoa took a hard hit against the Buffalo Bills and appeared disoriented when he got to his feet. He was taken to the locker room and evaluated for a concussion. After he was examined and no signs of head injury were found under the NFL’s protocol, Tagovailoa returned to start the third quarter, prompting an investigation by the NFL Players Association into the handling of his injury.

Last Saturday, the NFL and NFLPA agreed to make changes to the league’s concussion protocol, adding language addressing abnormality of balance and stability to its list of symptoms that would keep a player from returning to a game.

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