Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh to have cardiac ablation, hip replacement

EL SEGUNO, Calif. — Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said Wednesday that he will have a cardiac ablation this offseason and hip replacement surgery.

Harbaugh, 61, briefly left the Chargers’ Week 6 game against the Denver Broncos after a flare-up with atrial flutter, a type of arrhythmia that causes the heart to beat at an abnormally high rate. Harbaugh wore a heart monitor for two weeks during the season.

Harbaugh went to the locker room, where paramedics treated him. He had an electrocardiogram scan and, eventually, they got his heart back to a normal rhythm. Harbaugh returned in the first quarter and coached the remainder of the game. Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter was the interim head coach while Harbaugh was out.

In 2012, Harbaugh had his last flare-up. It came when he was coaching the San Francisco 49ers in a game against the Chicago Bears on “Monday Night Football,” when he felt an irregular heartbeat but finished coaching the game and saw doctors afterward.

As for his hip replacement, Harbaugh walks with a significant limp now because of his hip, which will be corrected with the surgery.

Harbaugh has said previously that he wouldn’t consider retiring because of his health issues.

“It would take my heart stopping for me not to be out there on the sideline,” Harbaugh said in October.