What we know about Jackson State football coach Deion Sanders' health and injuries
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Deion Sanders had two toes amputated during his nearly month-long hospital stay in October, and the latest episode of his Barstool Sports documentary "Coach Prime" will show exactly what happened to the Jackson State football coach and Pro Football Hall of Famer.
“Just because I had a gift at one point and time to do my thing on the football and baseball field, that does not extract me from the tragedies of life,” Sanders told Andscape, the ESPN website formerly known as The Undefeated. “I go through hell just like everyone else goes through hell, and I’m going to show me literally going through hell."
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Here is everything we know about the status of Deion Sanders' health right now.
He is recovering from complications after foot surgery
According to Andscape, JSU trainer Lauren Askvold urged Sanders to see a doctor about halfway through the season when she saw that two of Sanders' toes were jet-black when she was changing his bandages.
Sanders was admitted to the hospital and stayed there for 23 days, missing three games. Blood clots in his left leg were cutting off blood flow to his foot. Eventually, his left big toe and the one next to it were amputated.
"The hardest thing of it all was to look down there and see that," Sanders said in a trailer for the documentary. "And understand that once upon a time you were this type of athlete and you don't even know if you're going to walk because all you feel is pain and you just want to get out of this hospital."
Sanders posted a video of his injured foot with a sneaker on it to his Instagram page in January.
After months of recovery from toe surgery, he is no longer in a walking boot.
"I just think back on how things were a few months ago Lord, and how far you've brought me," Sanders said. "The reason I am so joyed and enthusiastic and so happy is because look, they're just seeing an Under Armor shoe. But you know what I'm seeing? I'm seeing a shoe on a foot that they have no idea what transpired.
Sanders missed three games after he had surgery in November.
He returned for Jackson State's win against Southern in Baton Rouge on Nov. 13 and coached from a wheelchair before moving to a scooter.
Sanders was coaching on a scooter after his initial surgery in September as well, and at one point was using a motorized bike. Now it appears that he is back on two feet, as the video showed him taking small steps.
"Lord I'm just thankful that I'm actually taking a step and walking it like I talk it," Sanders said.
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Jackson State won all three games while Sanders was out, under interim coach Gary Harrell. Sanders said he lost 30 pounds during his recovery.
Deion Sanders opens up on YouTube
Sanders broke his silence about his recovery in a YouTube video. He expressed gratitude to God for getting him through his time in the hospital in the YouTube video:
"Lord I thank you, I see you hear me say that and you don’t know where that comes from," Sanders said. "It’s a wheelchair right here and I’m in that chair, nevertheless I say Lord I thank you. I can’t walk on my own and people have to help me get in and out of everything, but I say Lord I thank you. It’s hard to even make it to the bathroom by myself without the assistance of others, but Lord I thank you."
Sanders asked himself the question: How can he still thank God when it's hard for him to help himself in his condition?
"Because I'm alive. And I got another opportunity to help you. See I often say when much is given, much is required but we don't understand the backside of that," Sanders said. "So you think I'm going to praise him up here and I can't praise him when I'm going through my affliction. The only reason I'm going through my affliction is that the devil is smart enough to know that I change things."
Sanders described the pain he felt in the video:
"You have no idea what I've dealt with," Sanders said. "You have no idea what the voices I've heard, you have no idea the pain I felt, you have no idea what I'm going through, and still Lord I thank you. I hear you."
Gabe Hauari is a digital producer for the USA Today Network. You can follow him on Twitter @GabeHauari.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: What happened to Deion Sanders? Update on his health and injuries
