Alabama coach Nick Saban will undergo surgery to have his right hip replaced on Monday, an Alabama football spokesman confirmed. Dr. Lyle Cain of Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopaedic Center will perform the surgery.
USA Today was the first to report Saban’s surgery. The coach had announced after Alabama’s spring practice that he would have his hip examined after having pain for some time.
“I’ve been struggling a little bit with one of my hips,” Saban said. “Even though they don’t make ’em like they used to and most players would not be able to perform in spring practice like I did if they had a similar situation, but nobody could even tell. But I might not be able to play golf for a few weeks. We’re going to do an evaluation of this at the end of spring. They say even if it’s the worst case scenario, it may be six or eight weeks. I can still cover (Henry) Ruggs and cut him off. I can still do whatever I need to do, I can still play golf. But this has been a little bothersome and I don’t want to go into the fall with this being a problem.”
Saban turned 67 during Alabama’s 2018 and remains hands-on during the Crimson Tide’s practices. He works directly with defensive backs for several drills during the viewing portion of football practice.
Opposing coaches have often mentioned Saban’s age to recruits for some time, and there is frequent speculation about when the coach might choose to retire. Saban addressed those concerns earlier this month when he explained why he wanted to have his hip examined.
“I want to get it fixed because I don’t want to coach for one more year, I want to coach for a lot more years,” he said after A-Day. “So whenever things like this come up, I want to be aggressive and proactive and try to get it taken care of. We’ll certainly do that. We have really good people to do it and I don’t think it should be a big deal.”
Sports editor Cecil Hurt contributed to this story.
