Injury To WWE's Charlotte Flair "Likely Worse Than" Expected

The Queen is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

Dec 17, 2023 December 17th, 2023

With this past Friday's WWE SmackDown seeing it confirmed that Charlotte Flair is expected to be on the sidelines for up to nine months, there's now a further update on the Queen's injury issues.

Per Mike Johnson over at PWInsider.com, one source described this injury as "likely worse than" just the torn ACL it was initially believed to be. This source notes how there were also additional knee injuries for Flair, but specifics weren't given.

As for surgery for Charlotte, that hasn't happened as of yet and is being scheduled around the holiday season.

Flair suffered this injury on the prior week's SmackDown, where she lost to Asuka following interference from Bayley. It was clear that the second-generation star had done something to her knee, and WWE has since made its aforementioned announcement of an ACL problem that has a nine-month timeframe tied to it.

Losing any talent to injury is a blow, but even more so for WWE when its a top tier star such as Charlotte Flair; a top tier star who was clearly in the frame for a significant role at both the 2024 Royal Rumble and WrestleMania XL.

Best wishes to Charlotte on a full recovery from all of us here at WhatCulture Wrestling.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.

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