Alabama coach Nick Saban expected to have full recovery after hip-replacement surgery

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama football coach Nick Saban's hip-replacement surgery went well on Monday.

"Coach Saban underwent successful robotic assisted right hip replacement surgery this afternoon with our hip specialist, Dr. Benton Emblom and the team at Andrews Sports Medicine," team surgeon Lyle Cain of the Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopaedic Center in Birmingham said in a one-paragraph statement released by the team Monday evening. "Coach is resting comfortably and we anticipate a full recovery.

"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."

WHY SURGERY:Saban plans to stay at Alabama for 'a lot more years'

Saban announced after the A-Day spring game earlier this month that he likely would have a procedure to address a bothersome hip issue he had been dealing with all spring.

"I’ve been struggling a little bit with one of my hips," Saban said April 13. "And even though they don’t make them like they used to and most players would not be able to perform in spring practice like I did if they had a similar situation, because nobody could even tell, but … we’re going to do an evaluation of this at the end of spring, but they say even if it’s the worst-case scenario, it may be six or eight weeks."

The procedure was performed Monday afternoon and both Cain and Saban appear confident that the 67-year-old coach can get back to work in short order.

"I don’t want to go into the fall with this being a problem," Saban said after A-Day. "I want to get it fixed because, you know, I don’t want to coach for one more year, I want to coach for a lot more years."