Deion Sanders has been out of the public eye for months now. The Colorado coach faced an unknown health issue since the end of the spring training period. It wasn’t until earlier this month that he reappeared in public for the Big 12 media days.
It was revealed this Monday that Deion Sanders was recovering from a surgery that he had to undergo to remove a tumor from his bladder. On Monday, the University of Colorado held a press conference with Sanders, Lauren Askevold, who is an assistant athletic trainer at Colorado, and Dr. Janet Kukreja, who is an expert in urologic oncology and the person who operated on Coach Prime.
At a point in the press conference, Askevold explained the process leading up to the cancer diagnosis.
“As you guys know, Coach has his other health issue. Vascular stuff. So every year, Coach goes for a CT scan of his vascular pattern, to make sure you know that blood clots are away. So with this scan (2025), everything turned out really great from the vascular side.
“About two weeks later, we get a text from his primary care doctor that said, ‘I need to talk to you Coach.’ We need to refer you guys to a urologist. So, about three days later, we go see a urologist. They go in for a quick procedure. The urologist told us ‘Hey, within ten minutes I can tell you if he’s going to need another procedure or if we just need to do this follow-up appointements.’ and the doctor told us, ‘Okay you guys, you’re going to need another procedure, I’m going to refer you to my colleague… But at this point, you have a bladder tumor and from there you’ll go get it removed.”
— Arch manning (@arch_manningcfb) July 28, 2025
After Askevold spoke, Kukreja then went on to explain the procedure in detail.
Who are Deion Sanders’ Dr. and Athletic Trainer? Dr. Janet Kukreja’s and Lauren Askevold’s profiles
Janet Kukreja went to medical school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and she also holds a Master’s of Public Health from the University of Rochester, where she also did her residency.
Meanwhile, Lauren Askevold has a Bachelor’s of Athletic Training from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Master’s of Health Sciences from Nova Southeastern University.
Askevold has been around Deion Sanders for a while, being the head football athletic trainer at Jackson State between 2021 and 2023, before moving to Colorado alongside Coach Prime. Kukreja is the director of urologic oncology at UCHealth.
College Sports Network has you covered with the latest news, analysis, insights, and trending stories in football, basketball, and more!
