Tua Tagovailoa will likely miss his team’s next game and possibly longer, his coach said Friday, as the Miami Dolphins quarterback was told to focus on being the “starting quarterback of his family.”

Tagovailoa was injured in a violent collision with Bills safety Damar Hamlin in the third quarter of the 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night.

The Dolphins’ next game is a week from now on Sunday, when they travel northwest to face the Seattle Seahawks. The decision whether to play will be in the hands of Tagovailoa and his doctor, Miami coach Mike McDaniel said.

“I don’t see him playing in the next game. I don’t see that,” McDaniel told reporters.

And in another sign that the Dolphins are ready to go without Tagovailoa for an extended period, McDaniel said the team is looking for another quarterback to replace Miami’s projected starter Skylar Thompson and practice squad quarterback Tim Boyle.

“The team and the organization have a lot of confidence in Skyler,” McDaniel said. “But we’re going to bring in (another quarterback), though.”

Tagovailoa, attempting a score on fourth down, crossed the line to score the first down before lowering his helmet and slamming hard into Hamlin’s torso. The quarterback fell to the ground and appeared unable to get up as players from both teams immediately called for medical attention.

As Tagovailoa was being taken away, McDaniel seemed to whisper a message to him.

“I told him he’s the starting quarterback in his family. He should go to the locker room, take a deep breath and we’ll see you soon,” McDaniel said Friday.

Tackler Hamlin nearly died about 20 months ago when he suffered cardiac arrest during a Monday Night Football game and had to be resuscitated on the field in Cincinnati.

Despite the near-fatal accident, Hamlin did not give up on his career and McDaniel said he was not in a position to advise Tagovailoa on his next move.

“I think it would be absolutely wrong of me to even raise this issue,” said McDaniel, who feared he would put unnecessary pressure on Tagovailoa by expressing such an opinion.

“If I were to answer that question, I would say, ‘All right, these are my thoughts on his career,’ and he would read it. Whether he agreed with it or not, I would have made it worse.”

Tagovailoa missed several games of the 2022 season because he suffered two severe concussions this year.

He had a stellar 2023 season, throwing for 4,623 yards, a league record. The Dolphins rewarded Tagovailoa in July with a four-year, $212.4 million contract, including $167 million guaranteed.