| World Champion
Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: New World Order
Posts: 31,361
|  Batista close to his return ... | |
(from WWE.com)
After three surgeries on his right triceps over the last five months, Batista hopes and believes that he’s on the cusp of a full recovery.
“I think (it’ll take) another month at the very most, just for safety,” Batista told WWE.com in a telephone interview. “I honestly feel like I can come back at any time now.”
It’s great news for 6-foot-5, 275-pound powerhouse, who has been as unlucky as any Superstar, injury-wise, since March 1, when he first ruptured his right triceps, during a match at a non-televised event. Batista traveled to Birmingham, Ala., and had surgery three days later, performed by the renowned Dr. James Andrews. Recovery time was estimated at three months.
At the two-month point, Batista was ahead of schedule. “I was pretty much healed up,” he said. “I was all gung-ho ready to go.” He was training aggressively to come back. In late April, while running wind sprints -- “which actually I learned from Brock Lesnar,” he said -- he slipped as he was slowing down, and instinctively used his right arm to break his fall.
“It didn’t hurt or anything,” he said. “I just felt it pop. My wife was there with me. I said to her, ‘I think the damn thing popped off again.’”
The next day, he flew back to Birmingham, where Dr. Andrews confirmed that, indeed, the muscle had re-torn, and another surgery would be required. That operation was on May 1, and Batista was told it would take four to five months to recover, longer because “they really wanted to make sure it was healed up this time” and also because surgery was more complicated, with doctors having to cut through scar tissue.
Six weeks ago, Batista had another minor operation to help clear up an infection that had developed. Today, he says he feels great and, to say the least, is anxious to return to WWE television.
He feels like he was just hitting his stride, learning from veterans like Ric Flair and Triple H, when he originally became injured. He says Evolution (with Flair, Triple H and Randy Orton) “has really developed without me,” but he’d love to return as the enforcer of the group, and have the opportunity to perform alongside those veterans again. “Hopefully it’s not too late for me to get back in there,” he said, although he realizes nothing is guaranteed.
Batista is scheduled to return to Birmingham for a checkup with Dr. Andrews on Monday. In the best-case scenario, he’d receive full medical clearance.
But Batista is hoping that he’ll at least get the green light to intensify his training, and then, perhaps, get clearance when he returns to Birmingham a week or two later.
A rehabilitation stint in Ohio Valley Wrestling -- WWE’s developmental territory, where Batista competed for two years before getting the call-up to the “majors” -- is a possibility. “I’m all for it,” he said. “I need to get in the ring and work out.”
In the meantime, Batista is working out at home and doing the occasional appearance on behalf of WWE. He says that he’ll one day begin doing wind sprints again, as it’s the only type of cardiovascular workout that helps prepare him for the ring, but he hasn’t done any since he re-tore his triceps.
“Hell no,” he said with a chuckle. “For a while, if it rained outside, I was paranoid. I was so afraid I was going to fall. I was wearing my brace when I didn’t have to. I was in the shower holding the rail.”
As the paranoia slowly wears off, his anticipation for returning to the ring only grows. “I’m just dying to get back,” he said. |
