Rhea Ripley provides injury update, says timeline to return ‘up in the air’
Rhea Ripley says her timeline to return from injury is “up in the air.”
Ripley has not wrestled since a June 3 WWE house show in Lisbon, Portugal. It was revealed on the June 12 SmackDown that she was being evaluated for a knee injury.
Ripley was in attendance for last night’s Power Slap event. During the broadcast, she revealed that she is dealing with a slight tear in her meniscus.
Ripley said:
“Yeah, I hurt my knee.I got a slight tear in my mensiscus, so it’s healing. It’s getting there. It’s getting stronger. I just can’t bend it very well. Kind of need to bend, guys.”
When asked about a potential timeline for her return, Ripley responded:
“I don’t know. I tore it in a really weird spot, so it’s kind of a little bit up in the air with just how fast my body recovers. But I’ve been out for probably about a month now. I think it’s been a month and one week.
“It feels better. It still starts to hurt and throb, it gets tired. I can’t get up, or bend down, really or kind of move side to side while crouching.”
Dave Meltzer noted in the July 6, 2026 edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Ripley had been planned to face either Alexa Bliss or Jacy Jayne at WWE SummerSlam.
Ripley’s last match on WWE programming was Clash in Italy on May 31, when she successfully defended the WWE Women’s title against Jade Cargill in Turin.
A clip of Ripley discussing her injury is below:
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.