Colorado football coach Deion Sanders 'getting new toes' to fill out foot
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Colorado football coach Deion Sanders is getting two new toes to fill out his troubled left foot.
He recently was measured for a silicone product that would essentially fill out his foot where his two biggest toes were amputated in 2021, according to a video June 24 on the YouTube channel of his oldest son Deion Jr. The video was entitled “Coach Prime IS GETTING NEW TOES.”
“I need toes,” Sanders said in the video. “I want it to fit my shoes properly.”
Sanders said this as he was visited at his office in Boulder by a woman showing him prosthetic and orthotic products from medical device company Össur.
By wearing such products, he would essentially have two new fake toes to support the side of his foot that is supposed to bear half or more of his weight. This could help with his balance, alignment and gait.
Sanders, 58, said he still has pain in that foot “every day.” His two biggest toes were amputated along with part of his calf after he was admitted to the hospital for blood clots in 2021, when he was the coach at Jackson State.
He once was one of the fastest players in football. But since then he has struggled to walk at times, having undergone several surgeries for blood clots in his lower body. Last year, he also had his bladder removed after being diagnosed with cancer. He is now cancer-free. But in April, he also said he went to the hospital for another procedure related to blood clots, which he said is genetic.
“The primary complaint though is it just feels really heavy like a boot,” Colorado athletic trainer Lauren Askevold explained to the woman about Sanders’ foot.
The woman said the products could be designed to match skin tone and even scars. She scanned his feet and said the product takes about eight weeks to fabricate.
“OK, well, I’ll proceed,” Sanders said at the end of the video. It also might help him better enjoy his massive shoe collection.
“I’m just trying to fill my shoe up,” Sanders explained.
Sanders starts his fourth season at Colorado Sept. 3 at Georgia Tech.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Colorado coach Deion Sanders ‘getting new toes’ to fill out his foot
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