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Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa diagnosed with concussion, flies back to Miami after being released from hospital
Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa underwent additional testing Friday and remained in the concussion protocol a day after hitting his head against the turf during a game, a frightening moment that has sparked controversy about how the league handles potential head injuries.
Tagovailoa had a headache Thursday night and Friday morning, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said. The team was waiting still for results from the MRI, which McDaniel said was done out of “extra precaution” on top of the CT scans and X-rays taken the night before.
McDaniel said he had no timetable on when Tagovailoa might be able to return.
“I’m not even really thinking about timetables or anything regarding him as a player right now,” McDaniel said. “It’s all about Tua the person.”
Tagovailoa was sacked by Bengals defensive tackle Josh Topou late in the first half Thursday. On the play, he spun awkwardly and was thrown to the turf. While on the ground, Tagovailoa appeared to display the fencing response, with his fingers frozen in front of his face.
He remained down for more than seven minutes before being loaded onto a backboard and stretchered off the field. He was taken to University of Cincinnati Medical Center for evaluation.
The Dolphins later said he was conscious and had movement in all of his extremities. He was discharged Thursday night and flew back to Miami with the team.
McDaniel said Tagovailoa was interacting with teammates on the flight home. He sat next to McDaniel and talked to him about the game.
“His personality was normal Tua,” McDaniel added.
It was unclear what is next for Tagovailoa, whose breakout season has been interrupted by a scary injury two weeks after he threw a career-high six touchdowns in Week 2 against Baltimore.
Last Sunday against Buffalo, Tagovailoa took a hit from Bills linebacker Matt Milano late in the first half and appeared to hit his head on the turf. He stumbled when he got up and was immediately taken to the locker room, where he was evaluated for a concussion. He returned to the game at the start of the third quarter and was not in the concussion protocol the following week, despite questions about why he was allowed to return to the game at all.
The Sunday incident prompted the NFL and National Football League Players Association to jointly review the extent of his injuries and if the Dolphins followed proper concussion protocol that day.
“Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time that player is ruled out of the game without even thinking,” CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation Chris Nowinski told “CBS Mornings” co-host Nate Burleson.
Nowinski, a neuroscientist, said that the Dolphins put Tagovailoa’s life in danger and failed to protect him.
“This is a failure by everybody. This is a failure by the medical team. This is a failure by the independent medical team on Sunday. This is a failure by the coaching staff. The problem is all these failures, none of them are going to be punished. The person who is punished here is Tua,” Nowinski said.
The results of the joint investigation between the NFL and the NFLPA have not yet been released, but Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel is adamant that the Dolphins followed proper protocols last Sunday.
“If there’s any sort of inclination that someone has a concussion, they go into concussion protocol, and it’s very strict. As long as I’m the head coach that will never be an issue that you guys have to worry about,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel reiterated Friday that Tagovailoa was cleared by several layers of medical professionals during that game and said he did not have a head injury.
“My job as a coach is here for the players. I take that very serious,” McDaniel said. “And no one else in the building strays from that.”
He added: “There was no medical indication from all resources that there was anything regarding the head. If there would have been, of course, I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I prematurely put someone out there.”
Reaction Thursday came swiftly from around the NFL. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Broncos QB Russell Wilson promptly tweeted with concern for Tagovailoa’s well-being.
“Praying for you Tua,” Wilson wrote.
The NFL Players Association tweeted: “Player health and safety is at the core of the union’s mission. Our concern tonight is for Tua and we hope for a full and speedy recovery. Our investigation into the potential protocol violation is ongoing.”
Some criticized the decision to play Tagovailoa so soon after his injuries in Sunday’s game.
Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe tweeted: “That’s a serious injury . Tua shouldn’t have been out there with Sunday Thursday turn around. Sometimes players need protecting from themselves. Dolphins failed Tua.”
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Israel says it carried out ground raid into Syria, seizing a Syrian citizen connected to Iran
The Israeli military said Sunday it has carried out a ground raid into Syria, seizing a Syrian citizen involved in Iranian networks. It was the first time in the current war that Israel announced its troops operated in Syrian territory.
Israel has carried out airstrikes in Syria multiple times over the past year, targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iran, the close ally of both Hezbollah and Syria. But it has not previously made public any ground forays into Syria.
The Israeli military said the seizure was part of a special operation “that took place in recent months,” though it did not say exactly when it occurred. Syria did not immediately confirm the announcement, but a pro-government Syrian radio station, Sham FM, reported Sunday that Israeli forces carried out a “kidnapping operation” over the summer targeting a man in the south of the country.
Israel has waged an escalating campaign of bombardment in Lebanon for the past six weeks, as well as a ground invasion along the countries’ shared border, vowing to cripple Hezbollah. On Saturday, an Israeli military official said naval forces carried out a raid in a northern Lebanese town, seizing a man they called a senior Hezbollah operative.
The army identified the man as Ali Soleiman al-Assi, saying he lives in the southern Syrian region of Saida. It said the man had been under military surveillance for many months and was involved in Iranian initiatives targeting areas of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights near the border with Syria.
Body camera video of the raid released by the army showed soldiers seizing a man in a white tank top inside a building. The man was brought to Israel for interrogation, the military said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the border with Lebanon on Sunday, saying his focus was trying to keep Hezbollah from rearming itself through the “oxygen lifeline” of Iranian weapons transferred to Lebanon via Syria. Israel says its campaign in Lebanon aims to push Hezbollah away from the border and put an end to more than a year of fire by the group into northern Israel.
Israel’s strikes in Lebanon have killed more than 2,500 people over the past year. In Israel, 69 people have been killed by Hezbollah projectiles.
On the U.S. presidential campaign trail this weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged progressives and members of the state’s significant population of Arab Americans who are angry at the Biden administration for its continuation of the U.S. alliance with Israel as the Netanyahu government presses its war against Hamas in Gaza.
“I have been very clear that the level of death of innocent Palestinians is unconscionable,” Harris told reporters.
In East Lansing, Michigan, she addressed the issue soon after beginning her remarks. “As president I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza, to bring home the hostages, end the suffering in Gaza, ensure Israel is secure and ensure the Palestinian people can realize their right to freedom, dignity and self-determination,” she said.
Some students in East Lansing voiced their opposition Sunday with audible calls for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. At least one attendee was escorted out after the cease-fire calls.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued an offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, where the military has said it is battling Hamas fighters who regrouped there.
Shell fire hit Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, injuring patients, including children, hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya said in a statement to the media. He said the shells hit the hospital’s nursery, dormitory and water tanks just after a delegation from the World Health Organization ended a visit.
Kamal Adwan and two other nearby hospitals have been hit by Israel several times during the fighting. Earlier this month, Israeli troops stormed Kamal Adwan, detaining a large number of people, including much of the staff, Abu Safiya said at the time of the raid. The military said those detained included members of Hamas, without providing evidence, and said weapons were found in the facility.
But the Israel Defense Forces in a statement denied striking Kamal Adwan on Sunday, blaming “an explosive device planted by the terrorist organizations in Gaza” for the attack.
“Attacks on civilians, including humanitarian workers, and what remains of Gaza’s civilian facilities and infrastructure must stop,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement Saturday. “The entire Palestinian population in North Gaza, especially children, is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and the ongoing bombardments.”
In southern Gaza, an Israeli strike hit a group of people gathered outside in an eastern district of Khan Younis, killing at least eight Palestinians, including four children and a woman, the territory’s Health Ministry’s emergency services said. The city’s Nasser Hospital, which received most of the bodies, confirmed the figures.
Palestinian officials said an Israeli drone strike on Saturday hit a clinic in northern Gaza where children were being vaccinated for polio, wounding six people including four children. The Israeli military denied responsibility.
Dr. Munir al-Boursh, director general of the Gaza Health Ministry, told The Associated Press that a quadcopter struck the Sheikh Radwan clinic in Gaza City early Saturday afternoon, just a few minutes after a United Nations delegation left the facility.
UNICEF and WHO, which are jointly carrying out the polio vaccination campaign, expressed concern over the reported strike. Rosalia Bollen, a spokesperson for UNICEF, said the strike occurred when a “humanitarian pause” agreed to by Israel to allow vaccinations was in effect.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, said that “contrary to the claims, an initial review determined that the (Israeli military) did not strike in the area at the specified time.”
It was not possible to resolve the conflicting accounts. Israeli forces have repeatedly raided hospitals in Gaza over the course of the war, saying Hamas uses them for militant purposes, allegations denied by Palestinian health officials. Hamas fighters are also operating in the north, battling Israeli forces.
Northern Gaza has been encircled by Israeli forces and largely isolated for the past year. Israel has been carrying out another offensive there in recent weeks that has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands.
A scaled-down campaign to administer a second dose of the polio vaccine began Saturday in parts of northern Gaza. It had been postponed from Oct. 23 due to lack of access, Israeli bombings and mass evacuation orders, and the lack of assurances for humanitarian pauses, a U.N. statement said.
Administration of the first doses was carried out in September across the Gaza Strip, including the north.
At least 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate from areas of north Gaza toward Gaza City in the past few weeks, but around 15,000 children under the age of 10 remain in northern towns, including Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, which are inaccessible, according to the U.N.
The final phase of the polio vaccination campaign had aimed to reach an estimated 119,000 children in the north with a second dose of the oral polio vaccine, the agencies said, but “achieving this target is now unlikely due to access constraints.”
They say 90% of children in every community must be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease.
The campaign was launched after the first polio case was reported in Gaza in 25 years — a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in the leg. The World Health Organization said the presence of a paralysis case indicates there could be hundreds more who have been infected but aren’t showing symptoms.
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel’s offensive has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, who do not say how many were combatants but say more than half were women and children.
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