Browsing: Pain

By Ella Jay

Oct. 19, 2025 4:01 pm EST

WWE

The reign of the “Mad Dragon” has begun with a stern warning to its potential challengers.

After more than a year on the shelf, Ilja Dragunov returned to WWE television in grand fashion by answering and conquering Sami Zayn’s open challenge for the WWE United States Championship on “WWE SmackDown.” Fresh off his win, the new champion then reflected on his time away from the ring; at the same time, he looked ahead to the possibilities that his comeback may bring about.

“It’s been such a long year,” Dragunov said in a backstage video posted to Instagram, “and nobody understands how I feel sitting on the sidelines for a year, waiting and hoping and training to come back better than anybody else. More ruthless, more ambitious, fearless, more courage, all these things and everything that I accomplished over this year, this is a symbol of it. Me as a United States Champion. One thing is so clear to me right now. I got a very, very clear message to everyone who is coming for this. My dear friends and my dear enemies, if you step with me into the ring, pain shall entertain you.”

Initially, The Miz emerged as the latest answer to Zayn’s open challenge. Before he could enter the ring, however, Carmelo Hayes attacked him from behind, rendering him unable to compete. On cue, Dragunov seized the opening (new neck tattoo and all) and stepped up to Zayn in his place.

The closing of Dragunov vs. Zayn saw Zayn’s Helluva Kick countered with a Torpedo Moscow from Dragunov, who then delivered an H-Bomb for the win. With it, Dragunov started his first reign as WWE United States Champion, while Zayn’s own first came to an end at 49 days.

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Sep 29, 2025, 05:42 AM ET

Pep Guardiola has confirmed midfielder Rodri missed Manchester City’s resounding 5-1 win over Burnley due to having pain in his knee.

The 2024 Ballon d’Or winner suffered an ACL tear in September 2024 in the 2-2 draw with Arsenal which ruled him out for almost the entire rest of the season.

He has since had further setbacks which saw him miss City’s 4-0 Premier League opening win over Wolves, while he played only 15 minutes in the 2-0 defeat to Tottenham.

Rodri missed the clash with Burnley due to pain in his knee. Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

The Spain midfielder appeared to be returning to full fitness after starting three games in a week against Manchester United, Napoli and Arsenal but Guardiola confirmed Rodri was not named in the squad for the romp of Burnley due to pain in his knee again.

“Rodri was training and said, ‘I’m not able to play. I have a lot of pain in my knee. I cannot play, I cannot play.’ And I said, ‘if you cannot play, you cannot play’,” Guardiola said.

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Nico González started in place of Rodri at the Etihad on Saturday, as City rose to seventh in the table thanks to two Maxime Estève own goals, an Erling Haaland brace and a goal from Matheus Nunes.

Rico Lewis covered the defensive midfield role in the 2-0 Carabao Cup win over Huddersfield.

City face Monaco in the Champions League on Wednesday and Guardiola could not say whether Rodri would be fit for the clash with the Ligue 1 side. “I don’t know yet, I don’t know [about Rodri’s fitness],” Guardiola said.

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Sep 28, 2025, 01:46 AM ET

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Houston Astros’ streak of eight consecutive playoff appearances ended Saturday night in the second inning of their 6-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

The Astros took the field at Angel Stadium with a glimmer of hope, as the Cleveland Guardians and Texas Rangers were tied going into the ninth inning at Progressive Field.

But with Christian Walker at the plate in the top of the second in Anaheim, Guardians outfielder C.J. Kayfus was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth to give Cleveland a 3-2 win over the Rangers, clinching the final American League playoff berth for the Guardians and eliminating the Astros.

This will be the first time the Astros (86-75) miss the postseason since 2016. They made seven straight trips to the AL Championship Series from 2017-23, winning four pennants and a pair of World Series titles (2017 and 2022) during that stretch.

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In fact, Sunday’s season finale against the Angels will be only the fourth game since the start of the 2015 season in which the Astros will be out of playoff contention.

“I want to apologize to the fans in Houston for falling short. It’s not what they’re accustomed to,” Astros infielder Carlos Correa said. “They’re used to watching playoff baseball, and they look forward to that every single year.

“We were not able to accomplish that this year, but we promise our fans in Houston that this offseason is going to be one of a lot of hard work. We’re going to get better, and next year is going to be one to remember.”

Houston began the season without two of its best players from 2024, as third baseman Alex Bregman signed a free-agent deal with the Boston Red Sox and outfielder Kyle Tucker was traded to the Chicago Cubs.

The Astros lost their top slugger, Yordan Alvarez, to injuries for much of the season and several other key players — closer Josh Hader, shortstop Jeremy Peña and third baseman Isaac Paredes among them — to injuries down the stretch.

Houston was still in the hunt for a fifth straight AL West title, tied with Seattle entering a big three-game series against the Mariners on Sept. 19. But the Astros were swept at home by Seattle and lost two more games to the Athletics — they did not hold a lead in any of the five consecutive losses — to fall five games back in the division race.

They had a chance to pull into a three-way tie with the Guardians and Detroit Tigers on Friday night, but failed to hold an early 3-0 lead and lost 4-3 to the Angels to remain a game behind the two AL Central teams.

Cleveland and Detroit both hold tiebreakers over Houston, so the Astros needed to win their final two games and have either the Guardians or Tigers lose their last two to extend their playoff streak. But then Cleveland and Detroit both won on Saturday to punch their tickets to the postseason.

“That’s a meeting, that’s a conversation that you don’t want to have with your team,” Houston manager Joe Espada said of his postgame address to the club. “This is my eighth season, and this has never happened. But it happened today.

“I told this team I’m really proud of them, because we’ve gone through a lot. We have guys who have no business being on the field right now, who are banged-up, but they’re playing through pain, through injuries, because they want it for our city, they want it for their teammates, and that’s the heart of a champion, right?”

Walker, who hit two solo homers Saturday night, believes Houston’s absence from the postseason will be an aberration, not the start of a downward spiral for the franchise.

“This stinks. It hurts, for sure. We poured a lot of energy and emotion, and blood, sweat and tears into the season,” Walker said. “I felt like with this team, there’s a lot of special moments that could happen in this room, so it sucks not to be able to show that on the postseason stage.

“There were some unfortunate injuries and things that happened along the way, but that’s part of it. Good teams find a way, and we almost did. We were close but not good enough. But even with the lineup and the roster we have, I think this group can win a World Series, for sure.”

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Ever methodical Ryan Crouser traveled through a year of injury and uncertainty to claim his latest World title. (KIRBY LEE/IMAGE OF SPORT)

EVEN WHEN RYAN CROUSER is subpar, heâ€s still the favorite to win. After all, Crouserâ€s par is so much better than everyone elseâ€s.

But make no mistake: this was not Crouser at his historic best. After winning his third World title in Tokyo — his first legitimate competition in more than a year — he talked with reporters backstage about his long, patient battle to rehabilitate injuries and keep his position atop the shot putting world.

“Every World Champs or Olympics is different, but this one was definitely the most challenging from a momentum side and from a physical side,†Crouser said. “This is the first time Iâ€ve really thrown hard since last September, and so the elbow has really lingered. I did, I donâ€t want to say permanent damage, but some long-lasting damage in preparation for the Paris Olympics.

“With it being the Olympics, we threw it, but then paid the price for it into October, November, December, January, and I didnâ€t really start to see progress until May, so it was just a bit of a nightmare in terms of getting the elbow healthy.â€

The injury was serious, but once improvements started happening, he finally believed that he could make Tokyo happen. “There wasnâ€t really any point where I thought, ‘Iâ€m not going to go,†but it was like, ‘If Iâ€m going, I want to at least be able to perform.†I donâ€t want to go out there and throw 18m [59-¾].â€

He had an MRI in May in which his elbow was injected with contrast dye, and the imaging showed the dye had leaked down into his forearm.

“I had a fully compromised elbow capsule, so no synovial fluid, no lubrication in that joint. I had thrown like that for a long time and did some damage to the joint. A PRP [platelet-rich plasma] injection has helped, but itâ€s just been a slow process.

“Phase 1 was getting the elbow to close and having a joint that actually functions instead of just a dry, creaky elbow, so itâ€s been a long process for sure. At least weâ€re trending in the right direction and did hopefully minimal long-term damage to the elbow during the last year. Finally, in May and June we started to see progress, but it was one baby step forward and make sure we didnâ€t take two steps back.â€

Training-wise, that meant backing off and “trying to maximize efficiency instead of just hitting the shot hard†— something thatâ€s hard for elite athletes to do. He said in normal conditions he does four sessions a week and anywhere from 10 to 30 throws. Now, he limits himself to 6.

“The biggest thing is the intensity that theyâ€re done at. Usually, I throw hard once a week, [but] I havenâ€t thrown hard at all, and itâ€s been like throw, take two days off, throw again, take two days off, and do my best to at least make it count.

“So a lot of drill work, time between throws, focusing on the mental side, kind of what I can control. A lot of drills, a lot of meet-type of preparation, because I canâ€t get in the ring and just throw and throw and throw until I get it right. Iâ€ve got six throws. Iâ€ve got to get it right as many times as I can on all six.â€

He arrived in Tokyo ready to compete, but with zero competitions under his belt — he qualified for the team due to his defending champion Wild Card — he couldnâ€t be certain of just how ready.

Adding to the challenge was the schedule — the qualification round and final were on the same day, just 10 hours apart. He passed the first test in the morning by hitting 70-1½ (21.37), 2cm past the auto-qualifier mark. But the final got off to a slow start, at least by his standards.

“It was a little concerning in round 1, because I really thought that was a good throw. Seeing it land at 21.41 [70-3], it was like, ‘Oh, thatâ€s not.†I was hoping that was going to be like 22.40 [73-6]. So I kind of had to take a step back and just try and build.â€

And he was still hurting.

“It was a little bit worse than I had hoped, because I havenâ€t been pain-free and I havenâ€t really expected to be pain-free, but Iâ€ve been feeling better, but that first throw, like, ‘OK, yeah, it still hurts to throw hard.â€

“It was one of those comps where I felt like I was learning a lot each round. I would say that you can make mistakes in the comp, just donâ€t make the same mistake twice. And I felt like you could kind of see that as I went through the rounds, and so it was not a technical masterpiece by any means.

“Itâ€s difficult when youâ€re making technical mistakes, not trying to be perfect and really execute well, and you lose that, I call it a ‘smash factor.†At the end of the day, like, you still have to hit the ball hard.â€

Crouser hopes that going forward, World Athletics will go a little easier on the aged.

“Iâ€m really, really proud of how I executed, given the preparation for this, and yeah, at 32, qualifying and final the same day is a little bit of a challenge, for sure. Weâ€re probably pushing 20,000-plus steps today, so hopefully they quit doing that for the next World Champs and especially for the â€28 Olympics.â€

Now, with no major titles to pursue in â€26, Crouser can fully recover and attend to other priorities in life.

“My wife is a doctor, and so weâ€re moving to Nashville for her residency program, and Iâ€ll be kind of the second career for a little bit. But itâ€ll be actually, I think, a really good move. Iâ€m continuing to work with Rojé Stona [formerly competing for Jamaica, now Türkiye] and adding Peyton Otterdahl to the training group. Iâ€m excited to expand the training group — Nashville is a great city — and continuing to build the World Shot Series,†the shot-put-with-a-twist project he began at the Drake Relays this spring.

“Thatâ€s kind of a big step, especially with no major championship this next year. We donâ€t have the Ultimate Athletic Championship as a shot putter, which is disappointing. Yeah, so World Shot Put Series, it is. Hopefully weâ€ll replace that with the World Shot Series Ultimate Championship.â€

Since 1986, Lee Nichols has been the Rockdale (Texas) High School record holder in the mile and 2-miles. He followed those feats with a brief and highly undistinguished tenure with the Texas Longhorns. He has been writing for Track & Field News since 2004. When he’s not writing about track, he’s either writing about or drinking craft beer and watching Tottenham Hotspur play soccer.

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