ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale will not return to the air next week after a household accident, he said in a statement released through his employer Saturday.
Vitale said that the accident, which is not related to his recent cancer battles, has created “new health challenges and near-term physical limitations” that will prevent him from returning to the broadcast booth. He is expected to make a full recovery, but in the meantime, it is not clear when he will be able to resume broadcasting.
The news came just a day after ESPN announced that Vitale would return to the broadcast booth next weekend after nearly two years away. He was to call the Duke-Wake Forest game alongside Dave O’Brien next Saturday. Vitale last called a game in April of 2023, working the international broadcast of the men’s national championship game.
Vitale has suffered a string of health setbacks over the past four years, battling four different types of cancer that have largely kept him off of television. He said earlier this month that he is now cancer free. Earlier in his career, Vitale had to take a leave of absence due to vocal cord ulcers in 2007, foreshadowing a later battle with vocal cord cancer.
Arguably the best-known college basketball broadcaster to ever work a game, Vitale has been with ESPN since its first year of existence in 1979.
