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Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Staff Writer
LAS VEGAS — Colorado coach Deion Sanders underwent successful surgery Thursday to remove a blood clot in his right leg.
“Everything’s good,” Colorado defensive coordinator Charles Kelly told ESPN at Pac-12 media day. “I texted him before he had the procedure done and after it was done. He said everything went good.”
The procedure also included doctors straightening two of Sanders’ toes to prevent future pain, Sanders said in an Instagram video earlier this week.
With Sanders unavailable to travel, Kelly attended media day in his place, and was joined by Sanders’ son, CU quarterback Shedeur Sanders and DB/WR Travis Hunter.
Sanders had successful surgery last month to fix blood clots in his left leg, according to Instagram posts from both him and his fiancée, Tracey Edmonds. The procedure was for a blood clot in his left thigh and another in the same leg below his knee.
While coaching Jackson State in 2021, Jackson was hospitalized after complications from surgery to repair a dislocated toe. He experienced blood clots, missed three games and underwent several more surgeries, including the removal of two toes.
“His whole thing was he wanted to be full go by the time we started Fall camp,” Kelly said. “So, he had to do it. I know he hates that he missed this, but we need him full go.”
Conference media selected the Buffs, who won one game a year ago, to finish 11th place in the conference, ahead of Stanford.
“I really don’t even too much care about that because that’s what they’re supposed to do,” Shedeur Sanders said. “They’re supposed to hype things up and create chaos. That’s what media is. We have our own [in-house] media, so it’s just like we understand what they do.”
Kelly, who previous served as the associate defensive coordinator at Alabama, said a number of people have question his decision to leave Nick Saban’s staff and join Sanders at Colorado, but is convinced they will get things turned around.
“Everybody says, you can’t do it at Colorado,” Kelly said. “Well yeah, you can do it at Colorado. I think about what Colorado used to be, that’s how I remember Colorado football. And that’s the vision that we have of bringing it back. So, we knew it was going to be a lot of hard work, but I don’t think you can put a time limit on it.”
Colorado opens the season Sept. 2 against TCU.