In a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet as part of the INSIGHT With Chris Van Vliet podcast, WWE superstar Ivar of The War Raiders discussed several topics, including dealing with the neck injury that he suffered earlier this year.

“We got to the second half of that match, against Oba Femi, and i just lost all strength in my right arm, I couldn’t pick him up, so I just started calling audibles in the ring where I wasn’t going to pick him up.

We made it through the match, and that was that, and the whole time we were checking on medical to see how I was doing, and then after the match, that was like okay, that’s no good.”

Ivar said that he went on vacation with his wife, in order to take a break and that on an animal trek, he was unable to hold his arm up, underwent an MRI immediately and when he got the results, he was told that he would likely have to retire due to a herniated disc.

“They’re like, okay this is probably the end of your career, to the point where they handed me mental health paperwork to kind of get that rolling. My surgeon had read the result in the MRI and he pretty much felt the same way that this was it, so for five days, I think this is it, it’s over with, I flew too close to the Sun and the wings melted and that’s it, but when I saw him in Birmingham five days later, and he actually had the disc for the MRI and he read the results for the MRI himself, he’s like okay, we can work with this.

I’m pretty good, to be fair I do have permanent nerve damage and nerve pain in my hands, and that will never go away, and that’s something I live with, but as far as everything else, I got most of my mobility back in my neck. It’s a little stiff now,nbecause I have another herniation, but I still have very good range of motion, I credit that to yoga pretty much, and then all my strength is returned to my arm, so I have no problems there, so it’s really just the nerve pain right now from the original injury that I have that’s permanent, but I have good days and bad days, some days I can really feel it, it goes down my arm a little bit, and some days I can’t feel it at all, kind of all depends, but quality of life, I feel pretty good.”

The interview is available in full at this link.