Kris Statlander expects to miss at least six to eight months of action after undergoing surgery to fix a torn ACL.

In her first interview post-injury, Statlander touched upon how her knee landed awkwardly after she struck Sierra with a running kick on a recent episode of “AEW Dark.”

“I did a big boot which I don’t really do that often, but I decided to do it that day,” Statlander recalled on AEW’s Road to West Virginia YouTube special. “When I landed, my knee buckled on me. After getting an MRI, [it was revealed] I had a completely torn ACL. My lateral meniscus is torn, and there is lateral impaction fractures in my tibia and femoral heads, so tiny little cracks that are more of a bruise, but still [I] technically have a broken leg.”

“I’ve had a similar injury with my left leg, so my good knee went bad,” Statlander continued. “But what’s weird is that with the first one, I was in so much pain and couldn’t walk. But with this one, I didn’t really have as much pain. It was uncomfortable at first but after about 24-36 hours, I was able to walk around on it fine. Little to no swelling. So, we were really hoping for the best, and it turned out to be the worse.”

Despite the MRI revealing the worse possible outcome, Statlander is determined to bounce back “bigger, more powerful, and more than a woman” at some point in 2023.

Statlander, who missed nearly a year due to an ACL tear in 2020, hopes to call upon her past experience in her current recovery.

“So, recovery time is about 6-8 months,” Statlander confirmed. “Once we had the MRI, we were hoping it’d just be a meniscus tear; that would have kept me out for 3 months at the most. But now that we know the ACL is torn, it could be 6-8 months. Hopefully closer to 6, considering I know what I have to do. I’ve done this before.

“I came back biger and stronger the last time, and I’m going to use this opportunity to do that one more time — because fall down two times, get up three,” Statlander said with a thumbs up gesture. “I’m just trying to stay positive, gotta make the jokes — it’s the only way to do it.”

In conclusion, Statlander thanked her fan base for supporting through adversity.

“Whenever my return is, I’m really looking forward to being able to feel in the crowd,” Statlander stressed. “So, thank you all for supporting me.”

Statlander was reportedly in line for a huge push prior to her injury. She was on a winning streak for nearly four months, and seemed prime to challenge Jade Cargill for the AEW TBS Championship. Many believe her AEW career went on a different trajectory after she dumped her previous “Galaxy’s Greatest Alien” character for the “More than a Woman” persona, a change that Statlander herself felt was necessary.

Source: Wrestling Inc.