Deion Sanders has been away from the Colorado football program while dealing with an unspecified health issue at his home in Canton, Texas, according to multiple reports on Tuesday.
It's not known how long Sanders has been recuperating in Texas. He was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a symposium for The Foundation for Sickle Cell Research on June 8 (Sunday), but the foundation announced he would not appear due to an "unavoidable last-minute schedule change."
Sanders's son Deion, Jr., said on a YouTube livestream on Sunday, “He’ll tell y’all soon enough what he going through, what he went through... When we get back in Boulder, I don’t know. I’m waiting until my dad leaves. When he leaves, then I’ll go. Until then, I’m gonna sit here with him.”
USA Today, who broke the story, reported Sanders is accompanied in Texas by CU athletic trainer Lauren Askevold.
While the issue at hand is not known, Sanders has dealt with serious blood clot issues before. He revealed in 2022 that he had to have two toes amputated after missing multiple games during the 2021 season. The issues arose as a complication from toe injuries during Sanders's NFL career.
“It was my fourth toe surgery, and it just didn’t heal," Sanders said in 2022. "The trainer was looking at it and she said we need to go get this checked, your big toe and second toe is black. We need to go to the hospital now. I said let’s go to practice and then we’ll go (to the hospital).
“And then doctors started looking around to each other and you’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, something’s going on.’ And then I was there for a month after that.”
Sanders also missed Pac-12 media days in 2023 due to blood clots.
In a podcast appearance with former NFL cornerback Asante Samuel late last month, Sanders reported losing 14 pounds due to the current health issue. “What I’m dealing with right now is at whole 'nother level," he said.