Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban underwent hip replacement surgery on Monday and will be back to work soon, the school announced in a news release.
Dr. Lyle Cain, an orthopedic consultant with the athletic department, said the robotic-assisted procedure was successful on the 67-year-old coach.
“Coach is resting comfortably, and we anticipate a full recovery,” Cain said in the release. “He should be able to return to work in the very near future, and we’ll have him back out on the golf course, with hopefully a few more yards off the tee, as soon as possible.”
Alabama doesn’t typically begin fall practice until early August, so Saban will have more than three months to recover.
The Crimson Tide, who have won five championships in Saban’s 12 seasons leading the program, open the season against Duke on Aug. 31.
Saban said he was bothered by his hip throughout the spring and wanted to get it fixed now, rather than let the problem become worse.
“I want to get it fixed because I don’t want to coach for one more year — I want to coach for a lot of more years,” he told reporters following the spring game two weeks ago. “So whenever things like this come up, I want to be aggressive and proactive to try and get it taken care of. We’ll certainly do that, and we’ve got really good people to do it.”