In a recent appearance on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, AJ Styles detailed the serious foot injury he sustained last October, describing it as one of the most concerning injuries of his career.
“Because it’s tendons,” Styles explained, “and my doctor, who is also my friend, was like do not look this up.” Of course, Styles couldn’t resist: “I’m like I’m gonna look this up, and it’s a career-ending injury.”
He discovered that such injuries are most common in severe situations.
“It happens in car wrecks and in professional football mostly, that’s usually when it happens.”
The severity of the injury led to serious discussions about his treatment options.
“In football, of course, it’s one of those things depending how severe it is. I was literally by the skin of my teeth able to (come back).”
Styles was given a choice—surgery or therapy.
“They were like we can have surgery, we could do surgery on your foot and it will heal faster, but there could be complications as you get older. We don’t know. We don’t have to have surgery, let’s try to do some therapy and get it back to where it is.”
Ultimately, he chose therapy over surgery, though the recovery was long and grueling.
“Lucky for me I was able to get that therapy that I needed,” Styles said, but emphasized the difficulty: “Wasn’t easy. It sucked.”
He described the bizarre process of having to relearn basic movements.
“It’s so crazy that you have to learn how to walk again to a certain extent, like how did I forget how to run? Little things like that.”
The recovery process, which included six weeks in a boot and six more weeks of therapy, took a mental and physical toll.
“It’ll mess with you.”
Despite the challenges, Styles has successfully returned to the ring, though the experience reminded him of how fragile a career in professional wrestling can be.
