Mickie James will be undergoing surgery later today, Tuesday, July 16, at the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center in Birmingham, Alabama, according to F4Wonline.com. Mickie will be going under the knife to repair her right ACL.

Mickie is expected to be out of action for 7 to 9 months, which means she could be back in time for WrestleMania 36 in 2020. In an impressive stat, this is Mickie’s first major surgery of her 20-year career.

It was reported back on June 6 that Mickie had suffered an apparent knee injury at the June 1 WWE live event in Waco, Texas, during a singles loss to Carmella that ended abruptly after Mickie went down. Mickie later confirmed that she underwent an MRI during the first week of June, and it was confirmed that she suffered the torn ACL. Mickie noted then that she would eventually need surgery, and that she didn’t know how long she would be out of action, but it would be for a while. The new report states that she will be out for 7 to 9 months.

Mickie, who is a member of the SmackDown roster, noted on Twitter this week that she misses being in the ring. It was reported in December 2016 that she had signed a new multi-year deal with WWE and some reports had that new deal being for three years, but that was never confirmed.

The WWE veteran is still focusing on her country music career while she is away from the WWE action. It’s been said that her third album is in the works and as seen in her Instagram post below, Mickie opened for Big & Rich at the All-Star Country Music Jam at Richmond Raceway last week, in her hometown of Richmond, Virginia.

“What an absolute honor it was to be able to open for @bigandrichofficial in my hometown of Richmond this week. Thank you to the @gosquirrels and @richmondraceway and to everyone that came out. Here are a few of my favorite pics from the show,” she wrote. You can see her full Instagram post below:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzwnIQ6gza4/?utm_source=ig_embed