Story highlights Walter Palmer will return to his practice on Tuesday

He speaks publicly for the first time since uproar over Cecil the lion's death

(CNN) What will his first day back at work be like?

Will protests greet Walter Palmer, the American dentist vilified worldwide for killing a prized African lion, when he returns to his Bloomington, Minnesota, practice Tuesday?

Or will he slip in with little fanfare?

Palmer's office reopened several weeks ago without him and now he's decided the time is right for him to start back to work.

"I'm a health professional," Palmer told The Associated Press and the Minneapolis Star Tribune in a weekend interview. "I need to get back to my staff and my patients, and they want me back. That's why I'm back."