Eli Gold, the longtime voice of Alabama football, is hopeful he can make his return to the broadcast booth for next year’s spring game.

Prior to the beginning of this season, the Tide’s play-by-play man announced that he would not be able to perform this year’s broadcast due to health issues.

Gold called into Saturday’s Iron Bowl pre-game radio show to discuss his rehabilitative efforts.

“Right now I’m looking forward to next spring’s A-Day game,” said Gold, according to WVTM 13’s Rick Karle. “I really wanted to be able to get back on the air to do the Iron Bowl, but it just didn’t work out.”

Karle, a friend of Gold’s, wrote that the veteran broadcaster has battled orthopedic issues that have impacted his mobility. The Alabama Sports Hall of Famer lost 100 pounds while recovering in the hospital, according to Karle, before gaining back some of his weight.

Gold is now in the process of learning to walk again.

“Stamina is so much a part of what we do,” he said. “It’s just not sitting down for five hours. You’ve got to have air to do that. I just don’t think I’m ready. I’m still recovering from the inability to walk the way I want to.

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“I have lost that ability, but it’s coming back. I am walking with and without a walker, and that is encouraging to me. At the age of 68, I had to re-learn how to walk, and that stage is difficult.”

Gold is eyeing a mid-April return to the broadcast booth to call the Crimson Tide’s annual spring scrimmage.

“I’m looking forward to getting back in the swing of things,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to the A-Day game.”

Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL