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AJ Styles Discusses Recent Injury Battle

AJ Styles

AJ Styles was missing in action for the first five months of 2023 and has now reflected on the broken ankle that kept him out of the ring.

Styles’ run in WWE came to a screeching halt in December 2022 when he suffered a broken ankle in a six-person tag team match that pitted The O.C. against The Judgment Day at a live event.

The former WWE Champion was kept out of the ring for five months following the injury, only returning following the WWE Draft that saw Styles and the rest of The O.C. moved to SmackDown.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, AJ Styles discussed the injury and noted that it came from something he had done a million times before:

“It was a simple thing, something I’ve done a million times and usually it happens the same. I was taking a backdrop, and I could have hit my back on the apron a little bit, but in that couple of seconds of landing on the outside my ankle, depending on the mat and where it was, turned in on me and snapped.

“I knew right when I did it, it was one of those things, it was like ‘I’m done’. As far as rehab is concerned, as soon as I’m able to rehab, I’m on rehab and it’s crazy how being in a boot for a while you forget how to there are certain things we take for granted – like walking and running and jumping.”

“It’s like my body had to rehab that, I actually went for another MRI because I thought something wasn’t right. But they said the reason why it’s hurting so bad is because there’s so much inflammation. Once I realized that and that I wasn’t going to tear or rip anything I got after it because I wanted to get better. I was able to focus on jumping and running and stuff like that and it was like overnight it changed. Once you tell your brain you can do it, you can. It was really that simple once I realized I could put forward my best effort.”

AJ Styles will have the opportunity to put the bow on his comeback at Night of Champions where he faces Seth Rollins with the recently re-introduced WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line.