Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze was released from the hospital Wednesday after undergoing back surgery last week but will not return to his office for another few days, the school announced Thursday.
Freeze had surgery last Friday at the University of Virginia Medical Center after a potentially life-threatening strand of staph infection entered his bloodstream and complicated what was already severe pain he was experiencing from a herniated disk in his back.
The first-year coach will continue his recovery process from a nearby hotel overlooking the campus in Lynchburg, Virginia. Freeze’s room has the equipment necessary for him to watch a live feed of practices and communicate with his coaching staff. The staff also plans to hold several meetings in the hotel until Freeze can return.
Freeze, 49, first started missing training camp practices Aug. 11 due to the pain in his back. After telling Liberty president Jerry Falwell Jr., and receiving several consultations, Freeze was told he had more than just a herniated disk.
“The doctors told me if it had been another 24 hours, that strand of bacteria could have gotten to my heart and that I would have been fighting for my life,” Freeze told ESPN last week. “It’s the way God works because there’s no doubt that bacteria would have killed me if President Falwell wasn’t so quick to make sure we got the right people involved.”