Update on Deion Sanders' status following emergency surgery to remove blood clots

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders had emergency surgery on Friday to remove blood clots in his legs. Sanders’ girlfriend, Tracey Edmonds, provided an update on how he is doing late on Friday.

“We are so grateful for the healing power of God and for all of our prayer warriors!” Edmonds posted on Instagram. “It was a long, but successful day! #CoachPrime @deionsanders is resting and doing great tonight after his surgery! Thank you Lord! Thank you Fam! We love you!”

Sanders has been battling medical issues for some time, dating back to his days as the head coach at Jackson State.

He explained during a YouTube video on Thursday why exactly he was having surgery on Friday.

The surgery, Sanders said, was to remove a pair of blood clots, one in each leg. The particular utility of removing the clots was that it would increase blood flow and allow doctors to proceed with an additional surgery down the line to address Sanders’ hammertoes.

“You’ve heard it from everybody else but you hadn’t heard it from me. Here we go: Met with my doctors a week ago. Got hammertoe, two toes out of the three are hammer toes and they wanted to straighten those out. But I am not receiving enough blood flow in order to do that surgery and another surgery to fix the dislocation of the foot as well. So, this is where we are now: There’s no talk of amputation, there’s no talk of any of that whatsoever. The doctors were just telling me, worse comes to worse, this was going to happen. But I believe in staying right so we never have to take that left,” Sanders said.

He continued, explaining the clots are the obstacle to addressing the hammertoes. Sanders has already had two toes removed due to the medical issue.

“Now, this is what happened: I went to the doctors the other day to check myself out. And I have two clots in my leg. One in my right leg, one in my left leg, which is my thighs. So now I’m having a procedure tomorrow to try to get those clots so now I can have proper blood flow through the leg so they can fix the toes,” Sanders said. “That’s what’s going on. That is it. You heard it from me. That’s what’s going on.”

Hammertoe is a condition where, according to the Cleveland Clinic, the joint in the toe points upward instead of lying flat. According to the Cleveland Clinic, “this deformity happens because muscles in your foot or leg get weak and the tendons to your toe pull abnormally.”