Colorado football Coach Deion Sanders will undergo emergency surgery Friday morning to address a blood clot in his groin.
The news was first reported by former NFL defensive back Adam “Pacman” Jones, who says he spoke to the former Dallas Cowboy, on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Thursday morning.
Sanders has been dealing with circulation issues in his leg for years and has had multiple surgeries, including amputating two of his toes.
“He’s been dealing with this since Jackson State,” Jones told McAfee. “He had a blood clot in his leg and [the] same thing with the foot. He was thinking about cutting the foot off, and he didn’t. He went through a hell of an operation; I was there. It was mind-bothering to see him go through that and get back to where he’s at.”
Last week, Sanders posted a video on his Instagram of a discussion with his medical team that revealed the possibility of amputating his foot due to a similar issue. In the video, he stresses getting whatever procedures he needs done quickly so he can return to work when the Buffaloes open training camp and be ready to coach this season.
The video and Thursday’s announcement were met with words of encouragement, support, and concern from fans and Sanders’s peers, yet others have taken it upon themselves to implore the coach to seek a second opinion and turn to other forms of medication.
Sanders responded to both reports of the amputation and the news Jones shared through a video on Instagram on Thursday.
“It’s time for the horse to talk,” he began. “You’ve heard it from everybody else, but you haven’t heard it from me. [I] met with my doctors a week ago. [I’ve] got hammer toe. Two of the three toes are hammer toes, and they want to straighten them out, but I’m not receiving enough blood flow in order to do that surgery and another surgery to fix the dislocation in the foot as well.”
“This is where we are now,” Sanders continued. “There’s no talk of amputation. There’s no talk of any of that whatsoever. The doctors were just telling me, ‘Worse comes to worst, this is what’s going to happen,’ but I believe in staying right so we never have to take that left.”
“…I have two clots in my leg — one in my left, one in my right. Now, I’m having a procedure tomorrow to get those clots so I can have proper blood flow to the leg so they can fix the toes. That’s what’s going on.”
Colorado hired Sanders in December after three seasons at Jackson State, in which he won two Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championships and two SWAC Coach of the Year awards.
No timetable has been given for his recovery.
The Dallas Express reported previously that Sanders might have to have a foot amputated.
Colorado begins the season at 11 a.m. CT on Saturday, September 2, against TCU in Fort Worth.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks