When the WWE set up a storyline at last week's Raw to show that Dean Ambrose was suffering from a nagging injury, fans knew something was up. One of the members of The Shield was going to be out of action again, this time the partner of Seth Rollins and it was just another case of the reunion of one of this year's greatest factions stalling again.

Unfortunately, most fans didn't know the severity of Dean Ambrose's injury and during both a segment on Raw this past Christmas Monday and in an article posted on WWE.com December 20, 2017, the company revealed the injury is much worse than most people would have hoped. Michael Cole mentioned it during the broadcast and the WWE confirmed that The Lunatic Fringe will be out of action for approximately nine months.

via wwe.com

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This is not good news for Ambrose fans, Ambrose himself or The Shield. Needing now to wait well into 2019 to really get the buzz going for the group, Ambrose will miss the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania and a number of other high-profile WWE events.

The WWE detailed the superstar's injury by saying, "He tore some of the distal triceps tendons where it attaches to the forearm bone, called the olecranon.” Dr. Dugas performed the surgery that requires a number of months to recover and told WWE.com. “He basically tore about 50 percent of the triceps tendon away from the bone. So yesterday we repaired that back down to the bone where it tore off of. The surgery was very straightforward; we removed all of the extra bursal tissue — all of that extra swollen stuff around his elbow.”

Dean Ambrose will need to undergo a rigorous physical therapy routine and his road to recovery from this injury won't be an easy one. But, if things go well, perhaps we could see Ambrose return to the WWE by SummerSlam.

In the meantime, WWE has placed Jason Jordan with Seth Rollins and the team upset the current champs to become Raw Tag Team Champions this past Monday on Raw.

NEXT: DEAN AMBROSE SUFFERS REAL LIFE ELBOW INJURY