Jude Bellingham has been dealing with a shoulder injury for over a year that has finally come home to roost.
While at the Santiago Bernabeu for Real Madrid’s thrilling 2-1 win over Mallorca in mid-May, The Sporting News heard significant speculation amongst journalists that Bellingham would be heading for surgery at some point this summer, potentially soon.
Now, Marca have publicly reported that Bellingham is set for shoulder surgery at some point in the coming weeks, either in the immediate future or at the end of the La Liga season.
It seemed to be an unspoken expectation among those close to the club that Bellingham was set for surgery in the near future. Now that the cat is out of the bag about Bellingham’s likelihood of handling this long-standing issue, he will be set for a period on the sideline while he recovers from the procedure.
The question, however, is when the surgery will take place. A report from Relevo in Spain states that Bellingham will indeed have surgery at some point in the next few months. The player wants to take care of it as soon as possible, while the club would prefer he wait until after this summer’s FIFA tournament.
The Sporting News details why surgery is the best option for Bellingham and how long it would leave him on the periphery.
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Why is Jude Bellingham having shoulder surgery?
Jude Bellingham has been officially dealing with a shoulder injury since first dislocating it with Real Madrid in a 0-0 draw at home against Rayo Vallecano on Nov. 5, 2023.
While he finished that match, he would then miss the next two games, as well as England’s two matches that November, which were a pair of Euro 2024 qualifiers.
According to a report by Guillermo Rai of The Athletic in late 2024, nearly a year after the initial injury, Real Madrid believe Bellingham had shoulder issues since he was with Borussia Dortmund before he moved to the La Liga club.
It has been known for decades that once a player dislocates their shoulder, the chance of reinjury skyrockets, and each subsequent dislocation causes the issue to get worse. Often, dislocating a shoulder can cause a tear in the labrum. While this is not as devastating of an injury in football as it is in other sports where arm use is more prominent, it can directly affect a player’s performance either through pain or fear of reinjury.
To prevent aggravation, Bellingham has been wearing a special fitted shoulder brace for some time, but it is not foolproof. The Athletic’s article from last fall reported that most of the coaching and fitness staff at Real Madrid believed that Bellingham would need surgery at some point to allow the injury to fully heal.
How long will Jude Bellingham be out?
If Bellingham does indeed have the surgery that he is reportedly expected to undergo, it would likely leave him out for a significant period of time.
Labrum surgery would likely leave Bellingham out of action for at least two months, with some experts putting that number at closer to 12 weeks or even longer depending on how his recovery plays out.
The matches he could miss depend on when he decides to have the procedure, but with that expected to be quite soon, he is almost certain to miss the entire Club World Cup. The tournament begins in mid-June and runs for one month, meaning Bellingham is already past the point where he could recover in time to play even a small part.
The England international would also be a candidate to miss the start of Real Madrid’s traditional league season, which comes around mid-August. Since he would need a ramp-up to the season having missed the Club World Cup and likely the team’s preseason training, he could need time to ready himself for the next campaign, thus lengthening his absence.
However, if the club convinces Bellingham to wait until after the Club World Cup to have surgery, he would likely miss a significant portion of Real Madrid’s season, possibly a month or more depending on how far Real Madrid progress in the Club World Cup and when the procedure takes place.
