Liberty coach Hugh Freeze told ESPN’s Chris Low he plans to travel to Saturday night’s game against Louisiana and that doctors don’t think he’s at risk of a setback by going. He plans to leave by private plane at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Freeze, who has struggled with lower-back issues for years, underwent surgery Aug. 16 at the University of Virginia Medical Center after a potentially life-threatening strand of staph infection entered his bloodstream and complicated what was already severe pain he was experiencing from a herniated disk.
Initially, he was confined to a hospital bed in a hotel suite and watching practice via a web camera. He was able to move to a wheelchair a few days ago and was outside walking with a walker by Friday morning.
Freeze told ESPN on Friday that Liberty president Jerry Falwell Jr. purchased a state-of-the-art examination chair and shipped it to the stadium in Lafayette.
Freeze coached Liberty’s season opener last week, a 24-0 loss to Syracuse, from a hospital bed that was crammed into a radio/TV booth in the press box at Liberty’s Arthur L. Williams Stadium.
The MediLuxe MD4-2000 Deluxe Treatment Chair that Falwell purchased weighs 600 pounds and retails for more than $5,000. Freeze said Liberty would bring the chair back on its equipment truck in case he needs to use it for future home games.
The plan is to get Freeze to the stadium about an hour before the 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff.