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Saban reveals he will require hip procedure

Field Level Media

April 13, 2019 at 10:01 pm.

Alabama coach Nick Saban revealed Saturday he has a hip issue that he plans to get “fixed” before the start of the 2019 season.

Saban didn’t divulge what the issue is or what type of procedure would be necessary. He said the recovery period would be no longer than eight weeks.

“You know, I’ve been struggling a little bit with one of my hips,” Saban told reporters after the school’s spring game.

“Nobody could even tell but I might not be able to play golf for a few weeks and 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 might be six or eight weeks.

“This has been a little bothersome and I don’t want to go into the fall with this being a problem.”

Saban, 67, said he wanted to be ahead of the curve with the issue, and that the focus is on the long term when it comes to his coaching career.

“And 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,” Saban said. “So, whenever things like this come up, I want to be aggressive and proactive to get it taken care of. We’ll certainly do that and we have really good people to do it and I don’t think it should be a big deal.”

Saban is entering his 13th season at Alabama. He has a 146-21 record with five national titles.

During the game, junior quarterback Tua Tagovailoa completed 19 of 37 passes for 265 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Tagovailoa is coming off ankle surgery.

The Crimson Tide open the season against Duke on Aug. 31 at Atlanta.

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