For those that were wondering about the prognosis of Kurt Angle's hamstring injury, which he exacerbated in his main event match with Bobby Roode at Bound For Glory and led to him dropping the TNA Heavyweight title in just one minute to James Storm at the Impact tapings two days later, it's not looking good. According to Dave Meltzer in this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter, as his leg was completely discoloured, it is believed that he tore his hamstring instead of merely pulling a muscle. By all rights, this should keep Angle on the shelf for several months.
The timing of the injury couldn't have happened at a worse time, as he's in intensive training for a foolhardy attempt to make the U.S. amateur wrestling team for the 2012 Summer Olympics in my capital city of London at the age of 42. Indeed, he got the original injury not from working a pro wrestling match, but from the amateur wrestling training he was doing in his time off before Bound For Glory. It's time for Angle to face facts and realise that his ageing and badly broken down body can't even handle the rigours of such stiff training, yet alone come close to qualifying for the Olympics against much younger and healthier elite athletes.
It seemed like a harmless pie in the sky fantasy when Angle announced the news six months ago before he started serious training, now it looks like his obsession to reclaim his competitive youth could cause him serious health problems, as Angle claims he'll be back training in a week despite his torn hamstring. By continuing to train hard on a bum wheel, this is likely to lead to more substance abuse problems for Angle, who became almost lethally addicted to painkillers towards the end of his WWE run in 2006 due to his long history of spinal injuries and more recently has been arrested multiple times for alcohol related driving incidents. We don't need this cycle to continue, so please stop your training and heal up, it'll be better for you in the long run, Kurt Angle.