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Tua carted off field after taking big hit (1:17)

Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa is carted off the field in the second quarter after throwing downfield and taking a big hit. (1:17)

1:36 PM ET

  • Mark SchlabachESPN Senior Writer

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    • Senior college football writer
    • Author of seven books on college football
    • Graduate of the University of Georgia

Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will miss the remainder of this season after suffering a dislocated right hip Saturday in the 38-7 win over Mississippi State, sources confirmed to ESPN's Chris Low.

Medical officials are continuing to evaluate if the injury also included a fracture, sources said. The Athletic first reported that Tagovailoa had a dislocated hip.

Tagovailoa was injured with three minutes remaining before halftime when he was brought down by two Bulldogs defenders while rolling to his left on a third-down play. He suffered a bloody nose and couldn't put pressure on his right leg when he was helped up by trainers. He was carted off from the field and eventually airlifted back to Birmingham for CAT scans and MRIs.

Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said after the game that he didn't think the injury was related to the ankle injury that made Tagovailoa a game-time decision for Saturday's game. "It's kind of a freak thing that you seldom see," he said.

"He was good, at least as good as he was a week ago in terms of his ability to move," Saban added. "I don't think anything he did affected his performance in the first half. So the guy played, and I thought he played really well. And we hate it that he got injured. We hate it for him. We hate it for his family. I hate it when any player on our team gets injured. So Godspeed to him and his entire family, and our thoughts and prayers are with them and hope this is not so serious it has any long-term effect on his future as a player."

Saban told ESPN's Molly McGrath that it was going to be Tagovailoa's final drive of the game. Saban said Tagovailoa was still in the game to practice a two-minute drill.

"That was going to be his last series," Saban said. "We were going to do two-minute before the half was over just for practice. First, we've got to block them better so he doesn't get sacked. It's too bad."

McGrath reported that Tagovailoa was screaming in pain as trainers helped lift him off the cart.

The Tide were leading 35-7 at the time of the injury. Tagovailoa was 14-for-18 for 256 yards with two touchdowns.

Saban said the coaching staff considered putting backup quarterback Mac Jones into the game for Tagovailoa before the final series.

"We can second-guess ourselves all we want," Saban said. "We told Mac to warm up. We were going to go 2-minute before the half, and Tua wanted to go in the game. So I don't really make a lot of decisions about guys getting hurt. ... We had total confidence in Mac, and Mac did a good job when he went in."

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1:37

Nick Saban discusses his decision to play Tua Tagovailoa vs. Mississippi State after the QB exited the game with an injury.

Tagovailoa, a Heisman Trophy contender and potential top-10 pick in next spring's NFL draft, had surgery on his right ankle Oct. 20, a day after he was injured in the Crimson Tide's 35-13 victory over Tennessee.

Surgeons performed a "tightrope" procedure on his right ankle, in which they drilled a hole from his fibula into the tibia and cast three tightropes through the bone and cinched it down to tighten it, according to Dr. Norman Waldrop, who was part of the medical team that performed the procedure on Tagovailoa's left ankle following the SEC championship game last season.

Tagovailoa missed Alabama's 48-7 win over Arkansas on Oct. 26 but returned to start against LSU last week. His mobility was limited, but he still completed 21 of 40 passes for 418 yards with four touchdowns and one interception in the Crimson Tide's 46-41 loss to the Tigers.

"The way I look at this whole thing is, Tua's our No. 1 quarterback and if he's physically able to play we want to play him in the game," Saban said when asked about the value of putting him in the game when ahead by 28 points. "That's what he wanted to do, and that's what our team wanted to do. If I would have known -- knowing that anything bad was going to happen, certainly I wouldn't have put him in that situation. But we're a team. We're a team that's trying to get better ... to see if we can finish the season the way we want."