Deion Sanders to Miss Pac-12 Media Day to Undergo Surgery, per Report

The Colorado football coach plans to be back on his feet by the time the program starts preseason camp.

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders will not attend Pac-12 media day Friday in Las Vegas.

Sanders is scheduled to undergo surgery Thursday and won’t be able to participate in the annual event the following day. The operation is to remove blood clots in his right leg and to re-adjust the posture of toes on his left foot, according to a video posted by Thee Pregame Show. Sanders’s middle toes on his left foot are dislocated.

In the video, Colorado athletic trainer Lauren Askevold stated that doctors will fix Sanders’s toes, so they don’t “cause any more pain in his shoes.” Although Sanders will be absent from the league’s media day, he wrote in an Instagram post that he plans to be back on his feet by the time the Buffaloes start preseason camp.

Prior to his upcoming procedure, the 55-year-old had the big toe and second toe on his left leg amputated in 2021 due to blood clots. As a result, during his tenure as Jackson State’s head coach, Sanders missed time during the ’21 season and spent 23 days in the hospital following the surgery. When he returned to the sideline, Sanders was coaching from a motorized wheelchair before doctors cleared him to return to his feet.

Colorado will begin the 2023 season on Sept. 2 against TCU.