What are you talking about when you say this time last year he was relearning how to walk? Tua was cleared for ALL football activity on March 9th last year. He had a pro day, which Trent Dilfer put together for NFL teams on April 9th which he posted on his social media. Some people on this site think Tua rolled up out of his hospital bed and then walked into the Dolphins facility.
If Tua was cleared for all football activity, I think he could have definitely started weight training in March of last year.
Sorry, that was just bad wording. Should have said "After the injury." It was in mid November, so the timing of that statement is off (I will edit that, so thanks for correcting me).
He had surgery immediately, so he would have likely been walking normally by December. I'm not going to pretend like I know how long or hard his specific recovery was though.
My brother is a competitive gymnast that dislocated and fractured his hip from a fall while rope climbing a few months after Tua did, so I saw the recovery from this firsthand.
He said it felt almost alien to walk at first, but after a couple weeks or so he could do it without a cane.
What I wrote comes from what I saw and researched during my own family experience w this.
But yeah, I should not have said "this time last year," and I don't know the specifics of Tua's recovery obviously. But I have a medical background (not a doctor, but went to dental school) and did heavy research to help my brother. This is not an injury to be taken lightly.
It takes so much force to dislocated the hip of a young healthy person that it is mostly seen in high impact vehicle accidents. There's a reason it's not very common in sports, even in football.
Yeah, he was cleared for football activity when you say. But I would bet a large portion of his training was based on regaining what he lost and physical therapy to prepare his body to take hits again.
And even when my brother was cleared to practice, it came with many restrictions that were lifted over time. Again, I can't know what Tua had to deal with in this respect.
But lets not pretend he had the freedom and ability to train like a normal incoming rookie.
*And w the April Pro Day u reference, people (including me) were shocked and impressed by the fact that Tua could move around and throw a ball to uncovered recievers on video. That's all it was. He def didn't look good if u ignore the injury. But it was about proving he wasn't broken and was slowly making strides.