WWE Rumor Mill: Backstage news about Finn Balor's injury

What's the story?

It was announced on this week's WWE RAW that former Universal champion Finn Balor is injured and that he will not feature on the show.

PWInsider has now reported that Balor is not suffering an injury but an illness.

In case you didn't know...

Balor has been in a feud with Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, and Baron Corbin, alongside Braun Strowman and Elias. In the past few weeks, he has faced McIntyre, and on last week's RAW, he was assaulted by the Scottish Psychopath, which WWE claim resulted in his injury.

Balor's injury (kayfabe) makes it two RAW Superstars injured by McIntyre after Strowman was injured when the trio of Lashley, Corbin, and McIntyre brutalised The Monster Among Men on RAW a few weeks ago. WWE is facing an injury crisis as several top stars on RAW, including Braun Strowman, Sami Zayn, and Kevin Owens, are out of action due to injury, while Roman Reigns is out due to illness.

The heart of the matter

PWInsider report states that WWE insiders informed them that Balor is out due to an illness and not injury, and did not feature in last week's WWE live event at Santiago, Chile, during WWE's South American tour, as he was sent home to get well.

Balor was set to face off against Drew McIntyre in a singles match at this Sunday's TLC PPV. WWE have replaced Balor with Apollo Crews for the semi-finals of the Mixed Match Challenge, which will take place following this week's SmackDown show, with the finals set to take place on Sunday at TLC. Balor and Bayley were to face the team of Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox in the semi-finals of MMC.

What's next?

TLC takes place this Sunday from the SAP Center in San Jose, California.