Anyone who saw Sami Zayn‘s beatdown at the hands of JD McDonagh on the Aug. 7 episode of WWE Raw noticed the gruesome bursa sac on his elbow. The attack could have written Zayn off to heal, but he returned a week later to wrestle McDonagh and continue his angle with the Judgment Day.
In an interview with Out of Character with Ryan Satin, Zayn compared the nagging injuries he’s been dealing with to the bumps and bruises athletes in major professional sports endure. He also addressed his elbow, calling it “not great,” but assuring fans that it will be alright (h/t Fightful for transcription).
“I’ve had a lot of issues, I guess for a while that you’re just kind of battling through. It’s funny, when I watch sports, like hockey players or whatever, especially in the playoffs, after the playoffs are done, hockey’s particularly aggressive, the schedule’s grueling and everything like that. So once the playoffs are done, it’ll be like, ‘Oh, this guy was playing through a broken sternum and three broken fingers and a cracked tibia,’ or whatever, all these insane injuries that they’re playing through. But as a fan and as a viewer, I’m just watching, and I just assume everything’s fine. But I’ve been battling a lot of little nagging injuries for some time, but nothing to the extent that would put me on the shelf. So [my elbow] is part of a nagging injury that’s just kind of gotten a little bit worse after this past week’s heinous attacks by JD McDonagh, for which there will be revenge. But yeah, there have been some little injuries, but knock on wood, thank god, I’m pretty healthy overall. You start to think about this stuff a little bit more as you get older, and you’ve been doing it for 21 years, and you’re like, ‘Oh, there’s definitely not another 21 on the backside of this.’ So you’re definitely closer to the end than the beginning. So maintaining your health and addressing those nagging injuries, I think that’ll become more important. But I still managed to give you a long-winded answer to a very easy question. My elbow’s alright, it’ll be okay. It’s not great, but it will be okay.”
Pro wrestlers often endure injuries, likely more than most people are aware of, unless the injury completely prevents them from performing. Despite this, they still manage to fight through it, which Zayn seemingly will do. It also keeps at least one-half of the WWE Tag Team Champions on screen, with Kevin Owens sidelined for an unknown amount of time due to his own injury.
The positive is Zayn says he is “pretty healthy overall.” With a variety of long-term injuries keeping numerous WWE talents on the shelf, it is good to have him appear on Raw every week as one of the show’s main babyfaces.