(CNN) -- A Tulane University football player who fractured his spine in a head-on collision with a teammate during a weekend game is "alert and responsive" after surgery, the school's athletic director said Monday. 

Devon Walker is expected to remain in intensive care for the next few days after a three-hour operation at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Sunday, the Tulane athletics department said. Walker, a safety for the Green Wave, was injured Saturday when he collided head-on with a teammate while trying to tackle a Tulsa ball carrier. 

Rick Dickson, Tulane's athletic director, told reporters Monday afternoon that he was "absolutely thrilled" with the reports of Walker's condition, but had few details to offer. 

"Devon is alert and responsive," Dickson said. "How that manifests beyond that, I don't know how to respond." He deferred questions about whether Walker was able to move parts of his body to doctors, saying the senior was "in the hands of extremely competent and dedicated professionals." 

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Walker lay motionless on the Tulsa field as trainers and doctors rushed to him. Dr. Felix Savoie, an orthopedist for Tulane University and chief of sports medicine at the school, said after the game Walker suffered a "cervical spine fracture" as well as an edema, or swelling from a build-up of excess fluid, in his neck. 

Tulane University's director of sports medicine Dr. Greg Stewart, who was with Walker on the field, said Sunday that, "for the most part, he was coherent" throughout the ordeal. 
How does the school feel about this?
unknown