Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh will undergo a pair of procedures this offseason, including one on his heart after he dealt with an atrial flutter during a game a few months ago.
Harbaugh will have a cardiac ablation and a hip replacement surgery this offseason, he said on Wednesday after they were eliminated from the playoffs, via ESPN’s Kris Rhim. It’s unclear when he will have either procedure specifically.
The 61-year-old coach, fresh off his first season back in the NFL, has been walking with a significant limp that should be corrected after his surgery. It’s unclear if anything specific happened to lead to Harbaugh’s hip injury, but he looked like he was really struggling to move during their loss to the Houston Texans on Saturday.
As for his heart, Harbaugh briefly left the team’s game against the Denver Broncos in October. He was spotted walking into the blue medical tent before leaving for the locker room due to an atrial flutter, a type of arrhythmia. He was treated by paramedics there, and then returned to the game.
Harbaugh said he has experienced that twice before, first in 1999 and again ahead of a game in 2012 when he was with the San Francisco 49ers. He wore a heart monitor for a few weeks and underwent treatment. Harbaugh will now undergo an ablation procedure, which destroys the tissue that causes abnormal electrical signals in his heart. He underwent that procedure both other times he experienced an atrial flutter, too.
Harbaugh went 11-6 with the Chargers this season, his first back in the league after he led Michigan to a national championship the year before, and got them to the playoffs for the second time in the last three years.
Though he is dealing with several health issues, Harbaugh should be ready to go in time for next season. And, as he’s said repeatedly, he’s not ready to retire just yet.
“It would take my heart stopping for me to not be out there on the sidelines,” he said in October.