Photo: Cody Rhodes in Phenomenal Shape Ahead of WWE Return

Cody Rhodes has been out of action for over six months. The American Nightmare suffered a partially torn pectoral muscle during an episode of Monday Night Raw, and tore the muscle entirely off the bone during weight training ahead of WWE Hell in a Cell. Regardless of the injury, Rhodes wrestled his main event cage match against Seth Rollins as scheduled, defeating his rival in a bout that was awarded five stars. The former AEW TNT Champion was written off of television the following week, as Rollins attacked him with a sledgehammer. WWE announced that Rhodes was expected to be on the shelf for nine months.

While that timetable would put Rhodes out until March, a recent photo suggests he could be back sooner than later. Appearing at the Sports Rehabilitation Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Rhodes was photographed looking in phenomenal shape.

Since the injury occurred, many have tied Rhodes to WWE Royal Rumble, as the company’s January premium live event would be the ideal stage for Rhodes to make his return. Rhodes himself has played coy about competing in the multi-man battle royale, teasing that he and the fans both know the event he wants to return at.

“I’ve got in my mind where I want to be, and I think a lot of fans have in their mind where I’d like to be,” Rhodes said earlier this fall. “And that’s hopefully where it’s at.”

Regardless of Rhodes’s desires, he will not be back in the ring until he is deemed 100 percent.

“(My doctors) are not gonna give me a timeline just yet for when I’m gonna be back because they are afraid if they give me that timeline, I’m gonna try and jump it by maybe a month or two,” Rhodes said this past summer. “I almost hemorrhaged in the surgery because there was so much blood.”

That was around the time of his surgery. Today, Rhodes looks like he’s back to his normal self.

“I was really just impressed with how he looks now. He doesn’t look like anything happened which is crazy because he had major surgery,” wife Brandi Rhodes said last month. “So he looks like the same Cody to me. The muscle mass is all there, you know, he looks ready to me, but I’m not a doctor.”

As of this writing, Rhodes sits as the odds-on favorite to win the men’s Royal Rumble match.