Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has cleared the NFL‘s concussion protocol and will play against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. It’s his first start since being concussed in Week 2.

The Dolphins designated Tagovailoa to return to practice on Monday after he spent about a month on injured reserve after suffering his third concussion of his NFL career on Sept. 12.

Tagovailoa has since met with numerous medical experts who deemed it safe for him to play football again, according to the team. He needed to clear the NFL’s five-step return-to-play process, which came after he participated in practices and took contact without exhibiting concussion symptoms.

Tagovailoa was examined after Thursday’s practice by an independent neurological consultant, who cleared him to play Sunday, coach Mike McDaniel said.

“Words can’t describe how excited I get for all players that have opportunities that I know they don’t take for granted,’ McDaniel said Friday. “It’s very exciting from a human perspective as a coach for this team.”

Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa on return from IR: ‘Willing to play the odds’

Tagovailoa was concussed when he collided with Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin. He ran for a first down and initiated contact by lowering his shoulder into Hamlin instead of sliding. Tagovailoa said Monday that he has been symptom-free since a day after being diagnosed with the concussion.

“We’ve been talking to him ever since his injury,” Dolphoins running back Raheem Mostert said. “I’ve been telling him, ‘Hey, you need to work on sliding.’ And we all joke around and laugh, but on a serious note, he knows that he has to protect himself a little bit better.”

He has a history of head injuries since entering the NFL. He was diagnosed with two concussions in 2022 and also suffered another scary hit to the head, which led to changes in the NFL’s concussion rules.

Tagovailoa has traveled across the country in the past month meeting with numerous medical experts who spoke with him about his concussion history, the Dolphins said. No doctor recommended he retire, and the decision to return to the game was made with his doctors and family, the team said.

Tagovailoa said he wouldn’t wear a Guardian Cap — an optional protective soft-shell helmet cover — because of a “personal choice.” Tagovailoa already wears a quarterback-specific helmet designed to help reduce head injuries.

Can Tua’s return rescue the Dolphins’ season?

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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THE SKY’S the limit for Leif Davis, who has propelled Ipswich from League One to the Prem.

Attacking left-back Davis has even been tipped as an England international after his stunning rise with the Tractor Boys.

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And he will still be aiming high once he hangs up his boots — in a new career as an airline pilot.

Aviation-mad Davis, 24, spends his down-time on the controls of a flight simulator.

He said: “A private pilot licence would be the start and I can decide what I want to do after what is hopefully a successful career.

“I taught myself to do it. The software is called FlightSim, which is where other people in the world are also on it.

“There will be someone, say, on a computer in London and he will be doing air traffic control.

“So if I’m flying I have got to speak to him while doing that as well. It is like real life but on the computer.

“It’s a thing I’ve always done. You don’t have to look at your phone, you don’t have to think about football, it just switches you off from everything.”

Ipswich travel to Brentford on Saturday — just five miles from Heathrow Airport — still searching for that elusive first Premier League win in over 24 years.

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Kieran McKenna’s side, who jumped from League One to the top flight in successive seasons, have drawn four games and lost four so far.

It has been a steep learning curve for the Town players, few of whom have played at the top level before.

But Davis insists his hobby of coaxing virtual Boeings and Airbuses into the air has helped him improve on the pitch.

He said: “You have got to focus on that one thing — or your plane is going down!

“You have to focus on it all the time but that focus helps me take it into training.

“You know what you have got to do when you are focused — how good you can be.

“It’s when you switch off for a second that’s when disasters can happen.”

Former Leeds man Davis revealed he has spent time in the wide blue yonder in the cockpit of a light aircraft.

Impressing experienced pilots

And he surprised an airline pilot with his knowledge of how to land a jet.

He said: “I have been up there a few times in a little Cessna but not flying a big plane.

“I actually got the chance when we went to Austria for pre-season to go in the cockpit and do the landing with the pilot, which was my highlight of the year.

“It was the best thing I have ever done in my life, just seeing in person how they do it.

“The captain was talking us through it and I’d say, ‘Oh, you are not doing that’ and he would say, ‘I’m just about to!’

“I actually knew a lot of what he was doing and he was shocked.

Surprise Prem pilot ace

“He kept looking at me as though, ‘How do you know this?’ but I just kept my mouth shut.

“It was mad how I knew what he was doing.”

Davis, who has just penned a new four-year deal at Town, would not be the first celebrity pilot should he get his wings eventually.

Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson has flown Liverpool and Rangers to European matches in the past.

And Davis revealed that he is not the only current Prem star who likes to get airborne.

He said: “I think Chris Wood at Nottingham Forest has got his pilot licence as well.

‘Welcome back to the Prem’

“I don’t think it’s just me that would love to do it, there are other players who have their licence already.

“It’s a different hobby to everyone else. Look at Ben White, he doesn’t even watch football.

“When I was at Leeds with him he hated watching it. Well, probably not hated it but his hobby was something else.”

Davis is the only Portman Road promotion hero to play every minute of league action so far, starting with a narrow 2-1 defeat at home to Liverpool on the opening day.

The defender, who made two top-flight appearances off the bench at Leeds, said: “It was welcome back to the Prem!

“When we got promoted it didn’t sink in properly until that first day when we were in the tunnel. You look to your left and there is Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk.

“I’ve loved every minute of it even though we have not yet got the win we wanted.”

If there’s one thing to know about Dan Ige, he’s always ready to fight.

Considering he accepted a fight against Diego Lopes on about three hours’ notice at UFC 303, it’s tough to imagine Ige would every shy away from any opponent or offer the promotion made to him. Just after nearly pulling off the upset over Lopes back in June, Ige made a request to get a slot on the UFC 306 card in September, which was scheduled to take place at Sphere in Las Vegas.

Despite his best efforts to secure an opponent for that date, Ige says a fight never materialized.

“The night of the fight [UFC matchmakers] told me they were going to work on something,” Ige told MMA Fighting. “I saw fights starting to get announced. I was just kind of sitting and waiting and then I saw [Dana White] was going to announce the Noche card. I was at strength and conditioning, it was a Friday, and he said he was going to announce it. So I was like maybe I’m on it. Maybe I just don’t know. Let’s see what happens.

“They end up announcing the card. Just things didn’t work out for me to go out there and fight a Mexican fighter. There wasn’t a fighter available. We were asking for Yair [Rodriguez] because he’s one guy in the top 15 outside of [Brian] Ortega and Lopes, who were already going to fight. He was on the list but he wasn’t ready until like November or December. So we just moved on.”

Ige eventually received an offer to face Lerone Murphy at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi and he wasted no time accepting the matchup.

Of course there was a moment as he was flying halfway across the globe to get to the event where Ige thought he had another opponent change when an erroneous report started circulating that Murphy was out and he was being replaced by Brazilian prospect Jean Silva.

“I was literally on the plane. I was out flying over the Atlantic ocean at that point and I saw the tweet and I’m like what is this?” Ige said. “Then I started getting hit by reporters. I went and tweeted ‘fake news’ because I didn’t hear nothing. I’m actually going and looking, checking my emails. There’s no emails. I texted Sean Shelby, I’m like I’m trying to take a nap right now. I’m like bro, is this real? I’m getting hit up by reporters and he said fake. It is what it is.

“I would have been ready. Because I didn’t come all this way to not fight. Whatever, it is what is. We’re fighting Saturday, whoever it is. I’ll be ready.”

While he gladly would have accepted anybody as an opponent, Ige is obviously happy that didn’t happen because facing an undefeated contender like Murphy gives him a chance to take a bigger step forward in his career.

“We got the Lerone Murphy [fight]. It’s a big fight on an outstanding pay-per-view,” Ige said. “In my opinion, this PPV, this card, this lineup is stacked. It’s an exciting fight card. It’s a big fight card right in the middle of a PPV so I really have no complaints and I get to fight up in rankings.”

Ige was previously scheduled to face Murphy earlier this year but an injury knocked the British featherweight out of the fight.

Now Ige is excited to finally face him, especially after Murphy scored an impressive win over Edson Barboza back in May.

“Lerone was a guy we were looking at because we were previously booked and then him being ranked ahead of me,” Ige said. “So I knew he was an option. Even guys ranked behind me, it doesn’t matter. I fought the who’s who. I fought guys coming up. I’ve given a lot of guys chances right to fight into the rankings.

“For me to go out there and fight a No. 11 guy and give myself that opportunity to climb the ladder again, I can’t complain about it.”

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Eastmond was capped four times by England at rugby league during his five seasons with St Helens, then winning six England caps after switching to union with Bath in 2011.

He played for England under head coach Stuart Lancaster and scored one try, but did not make the 2015 World Cup squad.

He later played for both Wasps and Leicester Tigers before returning to the 13-man code to end his career with Leeds Rhinos in 2021.

Since finishing his playing career he has had coaching stints across the two codes, with spells at Rotherham and Jersey Reds in union and most recently at Warrington Wolves in league.

His new club Halifax want to tap into all the experience he has gained across the two sports.

“As a dual-code international with England, Kyle brings with him a winning mentality developed under some of the best in the business,” said Halifax chief executive officer Damian Clayton.

Said Nurmagomedov’s UFC 308 fight was yanked out from under him, but he’s already been rebooked.

A UFC on ESPN 63 scheduled for Dec. 14 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla., Nurmagomedov (18-3 MMA, 7-2 UFC) will battle Daniel Marcos (16-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) in a three-round bantamweight bout.

Nurmagomedov initially was slated to fight Daniel Santos at Saturday’s pay-per-view event in Abu Dhabi, but was removed by the promotion after Santos withdrew. He has not competed since October 2023, when he bounced back into the win column with a 73-second submission victory over Muin Gafurov.

Marcos has yet to lose as a professional. In the UFC, he holds wins over Saimon Oliveira, Davey Grant and John Castaneda. Additionally, he fought Aori Qileng in a bout that ended in a no contest due to inadvertent groin strikes.

With the addition, the UFC on ESPN 63 lineup includes:

• Mackenzie Dern vs. Amanda Ribas
• Dustin Jacoby vs. Vitor Petrino
• Tracy Cortez vs. Miranda Maverick
• Manel Kape vs. Bruno Silva
• Billy Quarantillo vs. Cub Swanson
• Josefine Knutsson vs. Piera Rodriguez
• Navajo Stirling vs. Tuco Tokkos
• Davey Grant vs. Ramon Taveras
• Daniel Marcos vs. Said Nurmagomedov

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 63.