Former star Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who missed most of the 2019 season after undergoing surgery last November to repair his dislocated hip, is expected to be healthy enough to work out for NFL teams ahead of the 2020 draft in April, according to his agent, Leigh Steinberg. 

“What Tua [Tagovailoa] has going for him, incredibly, is first of all that athletes tend to have -- if they play football -- they have bodies that heal at amazing rates,” Steinberg told Mike Rodak of AL.com. "The recuperative power is not similar to an average person. They wouldn’t have made it this far in football if they were. The second thing is that he’s really young.

"You combine those two things, and we expect he will be healthy and working out by April.”

Ahead of the draft, which begins April 23, Steinberg expects his client will hold a throwing session that will last approximately 40 minutes, in which, he will make 60-80 throws in front of scouts. Steinberg said this session could happen as soon as Alabama’s pro day in March. Or If not, possibly at a separate pro day closer to the start of the draft.

Next up for Tagovailoa as the draft approaches is the NFL combine which starts on Feb. 23. Steinberg said that Tagovailoa will attend the event and go through interviews with teams, but will not participate in drills or throw.

Despite the severity of his hip injury, Tagovailoa, who finished as the runner-up for the prestigious Heisman Trophy award in 2018 and helped Alabama win a National Championship during the 2017 season, has still been projected to be a high draft pick by some draft analysts.

“The position is so critical now, and there are a number of teams that you would think would be in market for quarterbacks," Steinberg said. "Then it’s just going to be a match. Our hope is not simply that he goes high, but he goes to a team with great ownership, good management, great coaching -- that puts him in a position to have a long-term future filled with success.

"If he ends up going somewhere and would have to sit for a year -- that’s what Patrick Mahomes did, that’s what Aaron Rodgers did, Drew Brees, Carson Palmer -- that’s not the worst thing in the world either.”