Bayley's injury a result of a freak WWE training accident - reports

WWE announced earlier today that former SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley will be out of action for up to nine months following an injury.

BREAKING NEWS: @itsBayleyWWE has suffered an injury while training and will be out approximately nine months.A replacement for her match against @BiancaBelairWWE at #MITB will be announced tonight on #SmackDown.https://t.co/qLsf8KTHNp

— WWE (@WWE) July 9, 2021

Bayley was scheduled to take on Bianca Belair in just over a week at Money in the Bank where the two women were set to battle it out for the SmackDown Women's Championship in an "I Quit" match.

Whilst WWE hasn't publicly released the reason for Bayley's injury, Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp is reporting that the injury was picked up in a "return to the road" training session. The report goes on to note that Bayley was chain wrestling with a fellow superstar and the injury was a result of a freak accident.

We're told the Bayley injury happened during the mandatory "return to road" training session at the WWE Performance Center while doing chain wrestling with another Superstar. It was referred to as a freak accident.

— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) July 9, 2021

It appears that WWE is forcing all superstars to pick up extra training lessons ahead of their return to the road for the first time in more than a year.

Bayley has dominated SmackDown throughout the pandemic

Even though Bayley lost her Women's Championship to Sasha Banks at Hell in a Cell last year, the former Champion has still been one of the company's MVP's throughout the pandemic.

Bayley and Sasha Banks dominated the Women's Division on SmackDown last year and Bianca Belair and Bayley have stood out so far this year. The blue brand will definitely suffer in the absence of Bayley for the next nine months, but in the short term, there needs to be a replacement for the former Champion at Money in the Bank in just over a week.

It's currently unclear what will happen at Money in the Bank in Bayley's absence, but it could be the perfect time to bring back Sasha Banks. The Boss was last seen the week after WrestleMania, where she lost the Women's Championship to Bianca Belair in the main event.