R-Truth feared he would need amputation after complications from 2022 quad tear

R-Truth feared that he would lose his career and need an amputation after complications from his 2022 quad tear.

While appearing as a guest on the Cheap Heat podcast, Truth detailed the complications he suffered after undergoing quad surgery. An infection caused a hole in Truth’s knee, and an amputation was being considered if they weren’t able to get it under control. Truth spent four or five months trying to kill the infection and was ultimately able to avoid needing an amputation.

Truth responded when asked if there was a period where he feared his wrestling career was over:

Yes, there was a period, man. I mean, I had a hole in my knee. A hole. I had five different bacterias that caused an infection along with MRSA, staph, and their cousins and kinfolks.

It started off as a routine quad tear. As a matter of fact, I tore my bottom quad. And they went in — I guess it could have happened during surgery — but I went to get the stitches out and that’s when we found out that the bacteria, the infection, was eating from the inside out, so that’s where the hole came from. I just remember the doctor never would give me a high-five. He was like, ‘We gotta get this under control. If we can’t get this under control, I’m gonna have to think of the options.’

He was straight shooting with me: ‘You’re in the woods big time. We have to get this under control.’ Like, it wouldn’t heal. It would not heal.

So then I had to go three months, I had to have a wound VAC. It was a VAC that was on my knee that kept sucking the old blood up and putting the new blood, all that stuff, like I had to wear that for six weeks along with a PICC line. So I had to have that for eight weeks. I did that, and once all that was over with, the stitches started coming out on their own. So I had stitches coming through my knee out by itself, so my body wasn’t agreeing to them – so I had to go back into surgery for a third time. Third surgery. And the infection was still there, so I had to get another PICC line as well.

So, man, it was just a good four months, five months of just trying to kill the infection, slow it down, stop it, not go mentally crazy because there was a chance, he said, the other option was amputation. You know what I’m saying? So to go from doing the 24/7 [title] stuff, running around, doing things with my kids, to NXT, me and Grayson Waller tearing it down, and doing things to like stopping and then getting told this? It was a big reality check, man. It was a pump the brakes moment.

Truth said that being able to work out again was a big turning point for him and gave a boost to his mental health after the complications.

Truth tore his quad while facing Grayson Waller on NXT in November 2022. He was away from WWE programming for a year until returning at Survivor Series 2023.

Since returning, Truth has been prominently featured on WWE Raw as part of a story with The Judgment Day. Truth has insisted that he’s a member of the faction.

Truth celebrated his 52nd birthday on Friday.