Deion Sanders Recalls ‘Screaming’ in Pain After Bladder Removal Surgery

Deion Sanders is opening up about the intense pain he experienced during his cancer treatments.

Sanders, 58, also known as Coach Prime, revealed in an interview on Good Morning America on Tuesday, Sept. 23 that he was “screaming” in pain after undergoing bladder removal surgery earlier this year. “It was tough,” said Sanders. “That was the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt in my life.”

The football coach recalled being “on the ground in the bathroom” after the surgery, “and I’m just screaming because it was so much pain,” he said.

Also during his GMA appearance, Sanders admitted he was “irritated” by the burden of ongoing tests from his doctor before he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. “You’re irritated, because men, we don’t want to go to the doctor.”

Sanders said he went in for a “normal scan” when his doctors said they needed to do “another check on” him.

“And for what? I’m straight, I feel good,” he recalled thinking at the time. “They told me they found something,” Sanders remembered, “and they needed to bring me back to do a surgery to make sure this was what it was.”

The father of five said he “prayed on it” after he was told he needed surgery before deciding to attack his recovery head-on. “I’m aggressive. I ain’t waiting. I ain’t sitting back on the curb waiting. Let’s go right now, let’s go get this thing.”

Reflecting on the seriousness of his diagnosis, Sanders said he’s “always been an honest man and a person who always confronted my limitations.”

He then considered, “Cancer could have taken me out, but I’m here.”

Looking ahead, Sanders shared a motivational message with GMA viewers. “I choose to rise up and not to stay down. I choose to share,” he said. “I want everybody to understand you can make it. We’ve all got something to fight. Who out there isn’t fighting something? It may not be cancer, but it’s something. But you will overcome. We can do this.”

His surgery was documented in an emotional series called “For Your Glory,” produced by his son Deion Sanders Jr.‘s company Well Off Media and featuring footage of his girlfriend, Karrueche Tran by the coach’s side in his hospital room.

In another clip from the video, Tran is seeing holding Sanders’ hand as he is wheeled through the hospital halls by nurses following the procedure.

Sanders revealed his cancer for the first time on July 28.

After months of speculation on his health issues, Sanders appeared alongside his doctor in a press conference at the University of Colorado. Dr. Janet Kukreja, the director of urological oncology at University of Colorado Cancer Center said the head coach has been “cured” of cancer.

“When we hear that word, it’s usually a life sentence attached to it,” Sanders said of his cancer diagnosis during an emotional point of the press conference. “But not this time. Not this time, because God got me.”