Just over two months ago, at an event dubbed King of Pro Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor performer, ‘Unbreakable’ Michael Elgin, suffered a fracture in his face. The injury occurred during an eight man tag team match in where Elgin, along with New Japan stalwart Hiroshi Tanahashi, 2016 Super J-Cup winner Kushida and former ROH World Champion Jay Lethal defeated Tetsuya Naito and his faction, Los Ingobernables. Elgin tweeted pictures of his injured face, even joking that he picked up the win over his rival, Naito, with a broken face. Elgin had to undergo surgery on his orbital bone.
On the Two Man Power Trip podcast, Elgin gave a status update:
“The eye is great. What happened was they take bone from my hip and put it under my orbital because if you use the same bones there it can break easier, so if you put the bone from your hip in there it makes it a little more sturdy so if you take impact to the orbital again and it won’t break so easy. So they did that and to my understanding, I got home and you are supposed to wait three weeks to go to the gym (which I did wait) but my hip was still a little swollen and I just thought (since) there was a surgery that it is going to happen. I then worked out like two days and it just kept swelling more and more. I went into the hospital to have it checked and they were afraid I may have gotten a staph infection.”
“They checked if there was any bacteria or any staph infection and there was not. They had a little surgery to drain it and double check wanting to make sure there was nothing on the bone and cause harm and it was clean. They gave me antibiotics just in case because sometimes on the bone they can lie dormant for a little bit and spring out of nowhere and they wanted to do that as a safety precaution. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow so I’m hoping that is all good news and that I will be back in the gym and back wrestling soon.”
Though Elgin shows great confidence in being ready for the Tokyo Dome and New Japan Pro Wrestling’s biggest event of the year, Wrestle Kingdom, the types of matches that he fights in leave me with a bit of trepidation. The term Strong Style, when referring to Japan’s more smash mouth wrestling style, is not just to sell t-shirts. The athletes there are known for delivering stiff forearms, knees and kicks. Patients typically can resume normal activities approximately three to four weeks after if orbital bone surgery goes without complications. My concern is resuming “normal activities” this soon, when it comes to NJPW, could cause Elgin to reinjure himself.
Wrestle Kingdom XI will take place on January 4th, 2017 from the Tokyo Dome in the Bunkyo district of Tokyo, Japan. We here at The Scrum Sports wish Michael Elgin a full recovery and best of luck if he competes at WK11.
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