Kyle O'Reilly Discusses His Absence During COVID-19 Pandemic, WWE's Precautions

NXT star Kyle O'Reilly went four months without wrestling this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the Undisputed Era star finds himself in the main event of NXT TakeOver 31 on Sunday night as he will be taking on Finn Balor for the NXT Championship. O'Reilly wasn't the only WWE star to go on leave due to health concerns during the pandemic, with Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn being two of the other big names who played it safe and chose to remain out of the ring for several months.

O'Reilly has Type One Diabetes, which makes him at a greater risk for serious complications from COVID-19. An autoimmune disorder, Type One Diabetes can make it harder for the body to fight off infection. Type One Diabetes is a condition where the body's pancreas no longer produces insulin, not to be confused with Type Two Diabetes which often affects people struggling with obesity where they are not able to absorb the insulin that the body still produces.

"As for everybody, it's been a weird few months, it's been a weird year," O'Reilly told the New York Post. "At first, when this whole thing broke out it was scary for the reasons like you said, health being a huge part of that. As we learned more about what going on, I became more confident. As time progressed, I started chomping at the bit to return. You could only do so many garage workouts in a day to keep the cabin fever away.

After a while, I was ready to come back. The company had my health in their best interest. They weren't going to risk anything with me. Once the opportunity finally came around to come back, all the precautions had been taken and continue to be taken. I felt confident and yeah, it was a long few months. I was ready to come back a lot sooner, but that's the way things work out and I'm glad to be finally back."

ComicBook will have full coverage of NXT TakeOver 31 this Sunday night.