Chad Gable is shedding more light on the injury that sidelined him for several months in 2025.
After undergoing shoulder surgery last year, Gable returned to WWE action at the beginning of 2026. As part of his comeback, he has launched a multi-part YouTube docuseries documenting his time away from the ring, with the latest episode focusing on the surgery and recovery process.
The second installment covers the rotator cuff procedure Gable underwent in Birmingham, Alabama, last summer. While the surgery itself went according to plan, doctors discovered additional damage once the operation began, leading to an unexpected repair.
“They went to work on me. From what I understand, the whole operation took less than an hour,” Gable said. “Surgery went well. Fixed it up just like we were supposed to, but while Dr. Dugas was in there, he found the bicep tendon at the shoulder was pretty much completely shredded to a degree that he did not know, because the images do not always show everything. So when he went in there, the bicep tendon was actually a lot worse than he thought it was, so he repaired that as well, since he was in there anyway. So, a little bonus surgery for Gable here.”
The additional procedure came after surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Dugas discovered the extent of the tendon damage was far more severe than imaging had initially indicated.
Despite the condition of Gable’s shoulder and biceps tendon, Dugas praised the WWE star for continuing to compete at a high level before finally undergoing surgery.
“You’re going to get it all back. It’s just a matter of being patient with it and just trusting the process and not trying to rush it,” Dugas said. “The people who end up failing are the ones that try to rush it. So, yeah, everything could not have gone better.”
Another notable part of the episode centered around support Gable received from WWE Chief Content Officer before the operation.
According to Gable, Levesque personally reached out during the pre-surgery process and encouraged him to approach rehabilitation with the same dedication he brings to his in-ring career. Gable recalled being told that once the surgery was complete, his full-time job would be getting healthy and following medical instructions without taking shortcuts.
The advice ultimately helped ease Gable’s concerns heading into the procedure, and the former Olympian successfully returned to WWE programming recently following the conclusion of his run as Original El Grande Americano.
