Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will return to practice on Wednesday and hopes to be back in the Miami Dolphins’ lineup for Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals.

The former Alabama All-American will have to be activated from injured reserve and cleared from the NFL’s concussion protocol by the team physician and an independent neurological consultant to play again.

Tagovailoa left the Dolphins’ 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Billson Sept. 12 with a concussion. The quarterback’s injury caused heightened concern because he had sustained two concussions during the 2022 season that caused him to miss five games, so when he went down this time, some national football commentators opined Tagovailoa should retire rather than risk permanent impairment.

“I appreciate your concern,” Tagovailoa said on Monday about his response to that advice. “I really do. I love this game, and I love it to the death of me. That’s it. …

“I think the brain, there’s just a gray area when it comes to that. If you do know that you’re going to get long-term disease from it or if you’re not, I just think there’s a lot of gray with it. For me, this is what I love to do. This is what makes me happy, and I’m going to do it.”

During his Monday press conference, Tagovailoa was asked how much of risk he thought he was taking.

“How much risk do we take when we get up in the morning to go drive to work, get into a car crash?” Tagovailoa said. “I don’t know. Everything, I think, takes risk, so to answer that question, every time we all suit up, we’re all taking a risk that we could potentially get hurt, whether it’s a concussion, a broken bone, anything. You get up off of the bed the wrong way, you potentially could risk you spraining your ankle. There’s just risk in any and everything, and I’m willing to play the odds.”

Tagovailoa said he had been symptom-free since the day after the Buffalo game, yet the Dolphins placed the quarterback on injured reserve on Tuesday following the Thursday night injury.

“I think the team did what was best in the interest of me, knowing that I’m a competitor,” Tagovailoa said. “And given what the doctors have told me, that having a substantial amount of time to rest and recover would have been good for me, I think they did what was best in terms of protecting myself, you know, from myself.”

Injured reserve requires a minimum of a four-game absence in the NFL, and Tagovailoa’s required time out of games and team practices ended with Miami’s 16-10 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.

“It’s been frustrating,” Tagovailoa said. “Frustrating for sure, but I’ve tried to stay in it with meetings with the guys, trying to continue to be the leader for guys in multiple position rooms in terms of what we’re looking at, how you can make the quarterback’s job a little easier by doing this, by doing that, and then, you know, also some nuances within the offense as well, trying to help everyone.”

Miami coach Mike McDaniel said the Dolphins were opening Tagovailoa’s 21-day window to return from injured reserve on Wednesday “in the hope of everything going well so that he can play Sunday. But that will be to be determined.”

Tagovailoa said he will be ready to play because he prepared his entire time on injured reserve.

“I’ve been working my butt off as if I was getting ready to play every game for every week,” Tagovailoa said, “looking over the game plan, going out and working with the athletic staff to go stand in a spot and I throw it to them, and continue to work the timing of my footwork and all of that to stay in shape and just to get ready, so I expect us to come out … and execute all the plays that are given to us.”

When Tagovailoa led the NFL in passing yards last season, the Miami offense gained more yards than any team in the NFL. In the 17 quarters since Tagovailoa played, the Dolphins have scored three touchdowns.

McDaniel said Tagovailoa’s return shouldn’t be seen as cure-all what has been ailing the Miami offense.

“I think everyone would say that he’s the leader of this team,” McDaniel said on Monday, “so I think that’s a powerful thing that his team will appreciate. But I think it’s important to state to what I just finished talking to the team about is that he’s not the savior either. There’s a lot of things that have to be looked at from an individual’s game and all three phases to get better because it’s not: ‘All right, Tua is here; he’s going to fix the issues.’ Everyone has to be on board to do their part into getting results that we want.”

The Dolphins play the Cardinals at noon CDT Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Tagovailoa got hurt against Buffalo on a scramble, and he said he realizes he’s “definitely got to stay more available for the team, for the organization, for our guys.” But he will not return wearing a guardian cap, the cushiony helmet covering approved for use in games this season by the NFL, based on “personal choice.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.