Deion Sanders will undergo emergency surgery on Friday after blood clots were found in his legs, the Pro Football Hall of Famer said.
“I have two clots in my leg: one in my right leg, one in my left leg, which is my thighs,” Sanders said in a video he posted on Instagram.
The Colorado football head coach said he will have the surgery in order to restore proper blood flow so doctors can subsequently perform surgery to repair hammer toes in one of Sanders’ feet.
“There’s no talk of amputation. There’s no talk of any of that whatsoever,” Sanders said on Instagram in an attempt to clear up recent stories that said Colorado team doctors had told him he was in danger of having his foot amputated. “The doctor was just telling me worst comes to worst, that [amputating the foot] was gonna happen. But I believe in staying right so we never have to take that left.”
Pat McAfee first announced the news of the surgery Thursday on his “The Pat McAfee Show,” citing former NFL cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones, who regularly appears on the show.
Sanders is set to have surgery at 6 a.m. Friday, according to Jones.
“He’s been dealing with this since Jackson State,” Jones said, referring to Sanders’ time coaching the HBCU university. “He had a blood clot in his leg — 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 … to see him go through that and get back to where he’s at. I just want him to get healthy.”
Sanders, 55, has had blot clot issues for a number of years and has had some toes amputated on his left foot.
In 2021, he used a motorized wheelchair to get around after he sustained complications from foot surgery while coaching at Jackson State.
Sanders was hired in December 2022 to revive the foundering Colorado program, which has plummeted to the depths of the Pac-12 in recent years.
The hope is that Sanders’ high expectations and grinding guidance will result in the teams’ third winning season since 2016 — but first he must get back to full health.
“We’re pulling for you coach, we are pulling for you,” McAfee said Thursday on his show.
