Deion Sanders once was one of the fastest players in football but recently had to slow down and consider a serious risk for his troubled left foot.
He’s already had two toes amputated from it after developing blood clots in 2021. Now he says he has no feeling at the bottom of that foot and has had to consider another surgery. Depending on how it goes, he might need another amputation.
“He could lose the foot,” vascular surgeon Donald Jacobs said in a meeting with Sanders this week in Boulder, Colorado.
Sanders, the new head football coach at Colorado, consulted with Jacobs and other doctors recently in a meeting that was documented on Thee Pregame Show, one of Sanders’ favored YouTube channels. One of the surgeons, Max Wohlauer, said the blood pressure near his ankle has worsened since 2022 and is now 66% of the blood pressure measured in his arm.
What’s next?
Sanders, 55, walks with a limp after undergoing various surgeries in 2021, including to fix a dislocated toe. The Pro Football Hall of Famer missed three games that year as coach at Jackson State before returning and coaching in a wheelchair.
His first game as Colorado’s coach is Sept. 2 at TCU. He said he doesn’t want his situation to interfere with the season.
“I just want to know what we can do, because I want to do it this summer, because when we get rolling, I’m not going to have time to do it,” Sanders said in the video.
Doctor Ken Hunt, a foot and ankle orthopedic specialist, told him they could try to do some treatments to get him through the season. Sanders already has been trying different things to ease his discomfort.
“We’re trying to develop something phenomenal inside my shoe game,” Sanders said after his team’s spring game in April. “The shoes are being built for me to make sure I could get through the fourth quarter.”
But this week he indicated he had to cancel an appearance at a football camp at Morehouse College in Atlanta because of his foot.
He also said this week on Instagram that he’s “built for this” challenge.
“As you know I’ve faced some medical challenges with my foot but I’ve never said ‘WHY ME,’ ” he wrote. “I keep moving forward, progressing.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
