Alabama's Nick Saban: Tua 'Was a Warrior' Playing After Ankle Surgery vs. LSU

Third-ranked Alabama saw its perfect season come to an end with a 46-41 loss to second-ranked LSU on Saturday, but Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban had nothing but praise for quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who played the entire game after undergoing ankle surgery less than three weeks ago.

"I think he was a warrior in terms of what he did," Saban said after the game, per Matt Zenitz of AL.com. "I'm proud of the way he competed in the game."

Tagovailoa had a crucial fumble on the opening drive, and the Crimson Tide offense struggled as it fell behind 33-13 in the first half. However, Tagovailoa responded with a strong second half to pull his team within five points on multiple occasions late in the fourth quarter.

He finished the game 21-of-40 for 418 yards, four touchdowns and one interception.

Tagovailoa suffered a high-ankle sprain in the Tide's victory over Tennessee on Oct. 19. He underwent surgery for the injury and missed the team's blowout win against Arkansas. Add in a bye week, and the quarterback had basically three weeks to recover before the key clash with the Tigers.

"I thought his mobility was probably not 100 percent," Saban said of Tagovailoa's status Saturday, per Mike Rodak of AL.com. "I thought he had short-area quickness in the pocket. Maybe he couldn't run 100 percent. Maybe it was 90 percent. I don't know."

Alabama has embraced the "tightrope" surgery for high-ankle sprains in recent years, which has turned a long-term injury with a high chance of setbacks into a simplified recovery process.

Dr. Thomas Clanton, a Colorado-based surgeon, discussed the breakthrough procedure with Zenitz:

"Oftentimes when athletes were treated with high-ankle sprains, many times they were treated non-operatively and they would then get pushed back to play and then re-injure the ankle because it wasn't stable. That was one of the things I had seen in my early team physician days is we'd have a player with a high-ankle sprain, we'd think they'd be ready to play, would put them back on the field and they'd re-injure their ankle and would then be out even longer. But the tightrope is a method that seems to work well. You can generally get the player back quicker. And typically they don't re-injure the ankle once they go back to play if they've been rehabilitated properly."

Tagovailoa also went through the process last season. He had surgery for a high-ankle sprain suffered against Georgia in the SEC Championship Game and returned in time for the College Football Playoff, tossing four touchdowns in a victory over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, which served as a CFP semifinal.

The 21-year-old Hawaii native had four weeks to prepare for the clash with the Sooners. Having just three weeks this time around raised questions about his availability to face LSU.

Ultimately, though, he was able to put forth a valiant effort.