AEW’s Kenny Omega Gives Update on Kota Ibushi’s Recovery [Exclusive]

In October, AEW star Kota Ibushi suffered a broken left femur in his match with Josh Alexander, which ultimately led to surgery. After that, he had complications that resulted in him getting a second surgery months later. Now two months into his recovery from that surgery, Ibushi appears to be progressing well.

Ibushi took to Instagram this week to share his progress via video. Ibushi can be seen doing squats and walking up the stairs. “From my private life to rehab. Everywhere I go has meaning. Everything I do has meaning. Nothing is impossible! I’ll be 44 next month, but regardless of April, I’m working toward my return. This is something to celebrate,” Ibushi said in the caption.

“Still, still, still… it hurts. But until a week ago, I had difficulty walking. Something has started to move forward. It’s been about two months since my second surgery. I will definitely be back, so please wait for me,” he added. “Sending these feelings to Kenny, Bucks, and Tony Khan!! To my dear friends. English is difficult. I’m currently in Japan, but I’ll be heading to Florida again soon!”

In our interview with Kenny Omega promoting AEW Dynasty, the former AEW World Champion spoke candidly about the other half of The Golden Lovers and how he’s healing from his injury. Prior to him getting hurt, Ibushi and Omega reunited at AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door for a Lights Out Steel Cage Match.

“The best way I could describe it is, I think everyone was really shocked when Will [Ospreay] came back as soon as he did after neck surgery. The guy had a complete broken neck and he was able to make a miraculous comeback within, geez, barely any time whatsoever. That’s something that would normally take more than a year. My diverticulitis was sort of another situation where people had said, ‘Kenny, you’re going to be out for over two years and they’re just going to have to be at peace with that.’ I came back after eight and that was too soon. And I’m still sort of dealing with the complications of that,” said Omega.

Kenny Omega compares kota ibushi healing abilities to Will Ospreay’s

“For someone like Will, who’s just a freak of nature in that sort of light, Ibushi is the same. When he got the surgery, everyone had said, ‘How the heck did you even break that bone?’ There usually needs to be an immense force on a single point of that bone to be able to break it. So they almost wanted to give him a badge of honor just for accomplishing that. He had the surgery right away; he had the implants put in the screws, the plates, all that. Right away, he had posted the videos squatting and walking around. We were at the Tokyo Dome together and he was just supposed to be there to hang out. He ended up walking down that humongously long ramp at the Tokyo Dome. I couldn’t imagine how painful it must’ve been for him to do it, but he did it.”

Kota Ibushi’s complications & second surgery

However, Omega says, all of the extra wear on the bone caused his screws to break off into his leg. That’s when he needed to have the second surgery.

“What we hadn’t known was that the implanted screws were broken and floating around in his leg. I’m not sure if that was because of the extra force that he had put through his training or [if] he just pushed it too hard too soon. Not sure, but he had another surgery on top of that to re-implant the implants. Of course, right away, he’s back to doing things that he probably shouldn’t even be physically capable of doing, but he’s doing them.

His capability to recover is off the charts. I would say there is no cause for crazy concern. I’m sure he’ll be back. He has this almost Wolverine-like ability to heal beyond normal means. I think the physio and to what degree can he get his leg functioning, I mean, who knows. Sometimes things happen and their nerves [are] damaged or whatever. We don’t know but it seems like for now things are moving in a very positive direction.”

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