This past Monday night on WWE Raw, Seth Rollins confirmed that he was injured and that doctors were unsure if he would be ready by WWE WrestleMania 40. Despite that diagnosis, Rollins announced that he planned to do everything in his power to be healthy and ready to compete on the grandest stage of them all. Following his declaration, he was confronted by WWE Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER, who let him know he planned to win the Royal Rumble and face him at WrestleMania. Earlier today, it was reported that GUNTHER is legitimately the current internal favorite to win the men’s Rumble and face Rollins in the Night One main event.
In an interview with ESPN’s DC & RC, Rollins explained exactly how he was injured.
“It happened in the match last Monday, a week ago,” he began. “I was wrestling Jinder Mahal for the WWE World title on Raw. I did a move which I do all the time called a moonsault which is essentially a fancy name for a backflip where I land on the guy. I landed a little bit short and basically hyper-extended my knee, but, in the process, was kind of twisting a little bit to the point where I felt my knee go, you know, in a direction it wasn’t supposed to.
“A lot of us athletes, we’ve had that feeling. I didn’t feel a pop so much as I felt the stretch, but I knew something was wrong. I’ve had knee injuries in the past on my other knee, so I knew something wasn’t right. Obviously, take a second and try to take stock. We’re on live TV, so you got to keep going, figure out a way to finish the match, win the match, and then, you know, the race was on to get to the MRI and try to figure out exactly what the severity of the injury was going to be and what the timetable was going to be like for a hopeful return.”
Rollins went on to talk about how cool it felt to be walking into WWE WrestleMania as the defending champion, something he has never had the ability to do. He described how incredible it was to be in that position and how unwilling he was to give it up. With that in mind, he gave fans some insight into what his rehabilitation process and recovery timeline look like.
“Rehab’s going to be a pain, man, you know, but dodged a bullet,” he began. “The ACL is intact. So anybody who knows anything about ligaments in the knee, the ACL is a big one. That one is good; the MCL will heal. With time, you know, we’ll get in there, we’ll do some stuff, we’ll check out the PRP and do some rehab. I’m hoping to be back at full strength in around a month, around a month is like kind of my timeline and we’ll see what happens.
“We’re gonna take it day to day; I’d like to be back in a month. I don’t want to walk into WrestleMania and that’d be my first match in two months, three months, whatever it is, like, that’s not going to be good for me. I want to be able to get back in there. Kind of test the wheel out and make sure that we’re in a good place. So we’ll see how it goes, but I’m taking it day by day, and I’m just happy, like I said, that we dodged a bullet, and it wasn’t anything too serious that was going to put me on the shelf for six to nine months.”
If you use any quotes from this article, please give a h/t to Haus of Wrestling and credit DC & RC