Kevin Nash’s infamous quad tear was a hell of a lot worse than simply missing time from the ring. Nash says the injury left him wondering whether his wrestling career was finished, put him in a wheelchair for around 40 days and kept him near rehab for more than three months without going home.
Nash opened up about the injury during Kliq This while discussing how getting older changed the way he looked at his life and career. For Nash, one of the biggest wake-up calls came when he tore his quad at 42 years old. Dr. James Andrews had worked on Nash before, but Nash recalled getting a warning from Andrews that immediately made him realize how serious the situation was.
“Andrews had put me together a couple of different times. And Andrews came in, he said, ‘I just want to tell you,’ he said, ‘I’ve never had a 42-year-old athlete come back 100% from a quad tear.’”
That was especially frightening because Nash’s other leg was already badly beaten up. Suddenly, the leg he had been relying on was the one that was destroyed. The surgery itself was no small procedure either. Nash explained that the damaged tendon had pulled away and had to be reattached around the kneecap.
“I’m thinking, ‘Wow.’ Like, my other leg is already [bleep] pulverized. Now my good wheel’s [bleep] up. Like, I might not be able to do this, right?”
“I couldn’t put any weight on my quadricep whatsoever because it was — that whole tendon was pulled down, and they drilled holes throughout my patella and it was just sutured in place, and it had to [bleep] adhere to my patella.”
Getting around afterward became another nightmare. Nash was a massive man at the time, and using old-school crutches while his leg was immobilized put enormous pressure on his upper body. Eventually, he ended up in a wheelchair.
“I ended up being in a wheelchair for like 40 days because it was just — my being on crutches with an immobilizer that I couldn’t put weight on was just so much weight on my [bleep] shoulders.”
Nash believes that stretch may have created another problem that followed him long after the quad healed. At roughly 340 pounds, forcing that much weight through his shoulders while using crutches took its own toll.
“For that quad, man, they had old-time sticks, you know, just those [bleep]. And man, they just — I think that was the start of, like, my shoulder problems. I was [bleep] heavy. I was probably 340.”
The situation was even tougher because once Nash couldn’t put weight on the newly injured leg, everything shifted onto the leg that was already beaten up. That meant he wasn’t simply rehabilitating one quad — he was trying to get the rest of his damaged lower body functional enough to support the comeback.
“Not only do I have to start from scratch when I — you know, you do some straight-legged [bleep] beforehand, you get some stem, but start at about 40 days, start ranging and everything else and start making the actual comeback. I’m at the same time rehabbing my [bleep] right leg so I can, like, become functional because I can’t — I’m in a wheelchair.”
Nash remembers looking at himself during that period and wondering how years in athletics and professional wrestling had left him in that condition.
“I’m thinking [bleep], like, how did I get this beat up?”
Instead of heading home between rehab sessions, Nash committed himself completely to getting back. He said he stayed near HealthSouth for more than 90 days and essentially built his life around rehabilitation. Nash said his routine became going back and forth between the Embassy Suites and HealthSouth while working on his recovery.
“After that I didn’t take anything for granted because I just — I stayed down there for over 90 days. I never came home.”
“I just went from the Embassy Suites to the HealthSouth.”
The injury eventually became much more than another chapter in Nash’s wrestling injury history. It changed the way he viewed his body, his career and how quickly everything could disappear. At 42, Nash went from being one of wrestling’s biggest stars to wondering whether he could physically do the job again, and the road back included a wheelchair, multiple damaged body parts and more than 90 days dedicated almost entirely to rehab.
What do you make of Kevin Nash’s story about the true extent of his quad injury and recovery? Are you surprised he was able to return after being warned that a full comeback at his age was unlikely? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments.
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