Chad Gable Underwent Unexpected ‘Bonus Surgery’ During 2025 Injury Rehab

Chad Gable has shared more details about the shoulder surgery that sidelined him in 2025. He revealed that doctors discovered additional damage once the operation was underway.

Gable returned to action at the start of 2026 and has been documenting his recovery journey through a multi-part YouTube docuseries. In the second episode, he opened up about the surgery he underwent in Birmingham, Alabama last summer to repair a torn rotator cuff. While the rotator cuff procedure went as expected, doctors found another issue after beginning the operation.

Dr. Jeffrey Dugas discovered that the biceps tendon in his shoulder was more damaged than scans had initially shown. Chad Gable said the tendon was “pretty much completely shredded,” adding that medical imaging doesn’t always reveal the full extent of an injury. Since the surgeon was already operating on the shoulder, he decided to address both problems at once. Gable jokingly referred to it as a “little bonus surgery.” (via F4WOnline):

“They went to work on me. From what I understand, the whole operation took less than an hour. 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.”

Moreover, Dr. Dugas told him the fact that he was able to continue wrestling with that amount of damage spoke volumes about his athletic ability. The surgeon also reassured him that he would regain full function.

Dugas said to Gable, “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. The people who end up failing are the ones that try to rush it. So, yeah, everything could not have gone better.”

Since returning earlier this year, Gable has picked up where he left off. He recently competed against Ludwig Kaiser in their highly praised Mask vs. Mask match in AAA and is now involved in a storyline centered around making amends for his previous disrespect toward lucha libre.