TEMPE, Ariz. -- If it's up to Bruce Arians, this coming season won't be his last coaching in the NFL.
But the Arizona Cardinals head coach, who will be entering his fifth season with the team, understands that decision may be out of his control. Arians told ESPN on Thursday that his health will dictate whether he's on the sideline again in 2018 but that he never wavered on coaching in 2017 despite three medical issues in five months last season.
"We'll re-evaluate it at the end of next year, and hopefully we'll be ready for another one," Arians, 64, said.
Could 2017 be his last season?
"I hope not," Arians said. "That's going to mean I'm not healthy."
Arians said he'd like to at least finish out his contract, which runs through 2018. His contract also includes a team option for the 2019 season. But another factor will help Arians decide when to hang it up.
"Or until I really don't feel like doing it," he said.
Arians said Thursday he feels "great" five months after surgery to remove a cancerous piece of his kidney. He was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma on Dec. 15, three days before Arizona hosted the New Orleans Saints in its home finale, after a cancerous spot was detected on his kidney during a doctor's visit earlier in the week. He described the situation in his recently released book "The Quarterback Whisperer." He had a "small portion" of his kidney removed on Feb. 7.
Arians said the diagnosis didn't affect the rest of his season.
"Football kind of gave me a chance to get rid of the thoughts, and I poured myself into those last three games," he said. "We had the date set, and I just had to get there."
The cancer revelation was the latest in a series of health issues that plagued Arians in 2016.
He was hospitalized in August in San Diego with symptoms of diverticulitis during a joint training camp practice with the Chargers. And in November, he was rushed to the hospital with chest pains to be evaluated but was later released.
His only lingering ailment -- at least publicly -- heading into training camp, which begins July 21 when the Cardinals report for their conditioning test, is the final stages of recovery from rotator cuff surgery in his shoulder.
"I had a good summer," Arians said. "I was healed from [the kidney surgery]."