WWE News: Sami Zayn Out With Two Shoulder Surgeries, Will Miss Rest of 2018, May Return by WrestleMania
Sami Zayn is going to miss the rest of 2018 and part of 2019 as well. It sucks to write that, but Zayn underwent surgery on his right shoulder this week and plans to have surgery on his left shoulder soon. Zayn explained the situation to WWE.com in an interview on Thursday.
“Well, right now I’m in Birmingham, Ala. I just underwent surgery for my right shoulder, a.k.a. my good shoulder. So, I’m out for a little while with that. I guess people don’t know about this injury; I’ve been working with it for some time. I don’t know exactly when I tore it. I think I tore it, or initially injured it, on a Montreal Live Event. Which is ironic because I injured my left shoulder — now somewhat famously — in Montreal in my [Raw] debut against John Cena. And at a Live Event this past August wrestling Jinder Mahal, I think I injured it then.”
“But then my left shoulder, a.k.a my bad shoulder, started to act up again as well. That shoulder hasn’t quite been the same since surgery anyway, so I had just kind of gotten used to the fact that that shoulder was the bad one. But it started to get progressively worse, so basically, long story short, it turns out I have two torn rotator cuffs. The left one and the right one are both torn. I just underwent surgery on the right one, and then in about six or seven weeks, I’ll be undergoing surgery on the left one, and hopefully I can come back healthy and happy.”
Two torn rotator cuffs. That’s brutal. How long is he going to be out? That’s not known exactly, but Zayn hopes to be back by WrestleMania time. Zayn commented on how long he may be out and what role he may have while he is out.
“That’s really not a decision that’s up to me. Because of the timeline, I’d love to be in the mix for WrestleMania season; that’s the most exciting time of the year for all of us. I think timeline wise, I should be ready in time for WrestleMania, so fingers crossed.”
“There’s never a good time to get hurt or get surgeries, but I do feel like I was starting to hit my stride and find my voice and find myself as a performer. Which is funny, because 16 years in, it’s like I’m rediscovering the art of it in a sense, because I’m doing something I’ve never really done before. So, how I come back, when I come back, that all remains to be seen. But I have a pretty good track record, I’d say overall, and I plan on carrying that forward when I come back. I want to come back just as good, if not better, than I’ve ever been.”
Shortly after I posted this, Zayn tweeted this picture out. I think it sums up his feelings on the injury. Me too.
— Sami Zayn (@SamiZayn) June 21, 2018
TJR Thoughts: There’s no official timeline given, but two shoulder surgeries is a lot to recover from. WrestleMania is in ten months and Zayn is hopeful to be back for it. I hope so too. He’ll miss the rest of 2018 and probably a few months into 2019, so it sounds like about eight months on the shelf. I’ll miss him because he was doing a good job as a heel and getting promo time along with featured matches. I’ll miss Zayn. He’s a great talent.
This will be Zayn’s second lengthy absence since he missed about seven months of action due to shoulder surgery in 2015 as well.