Chad Gable needed ‘bonus surgery’ during 2025 injury
When Chad Gable went under the knife for shoulder surgery in 2025, he ended up having another issue that needed to be corrected as well.
Gable returned to action at the start of 2026 and is now releasing a several-part YouTube docuseries with footage he filmed during the time he was away. Episode two covers Gable’s rotator cuff surgery, which was done in Birmingham, Alabama last summer. The process went well, but Dr. Jeffrey Dugas did need to do a “bonus surgery” at the same time as the rotator cuff operation after seeing how badly Gable’s biceps tendon was damaged.
“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.”
Dugas told Gable the fact that he was able to wrestle with his arm in this condition shows just what an elite athlete he is.
“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.”
Triple H’s advice to Chad Gable —
Gable shared that Paul “Triple H” Levesque called him during the pre-surgery process and helped put his mind at ease. Levesque told Gable that, when the surgery happened, Gable would be starting day one of a new job where his mission was to get healthy. He advised Gable to treat his recovery like a job and follow everything doctors were telling him to a tee.
Since his return, Gable has built on the momentum he had pre-injury. He lost to Ludwig Kaiser (El Grande Americano) in their highly praised mask vs. mask match for AAA and is now involved in a storyline where he is trying to make up for his past disrespect of lucha libre.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.