WWE has confirmed that Sami Zayn is out due to issues involving both rotator cuffs and underwent surgery earlier today on the first one. Zayn spoke to WWE.com about the situation:

"Well, right now I'm in Birmingham, Ala. I just underwent surgery for my right shoulder, a.k.a. my good shoulder. So, I'm out for a little while with that. I guess people don't know about this injury; I've been working with it for some time. I don't know exactly when I tore it. I think I tore it, or initially injured it, on a Montreal Live Event. Which is ironic because I injured my left shoulder â?? now somewhat famously â?? in Montreal in my [Raw] debut against John Cena. And at a Live Event this past August wrestling Jinder Mahal, I think I injured it then. But then my left shoulder, a.k.a my bad shoulder, started to act up again as well. That shoulder hasn't quite been the same since surgery anyway, so I had just kind of gotten used to the fact that that shoulder was the bad one. But it started to get progressively worse, so basically, long story short, it turns out I have two torn rotator cuffs. The left one and the right one are both torn. I just underwent surgery on the right one, and then in about six or seven weeks, I'll be undergoing surgery on the left one, and hopefully I can come back healthy and happy."

While giving the interview, Zayn mentioned he'd been competing while injured for a while and was asked when he knew he would undergo surgery:

"As I said when I hurt the right one, I kind of waited on that. I tore my left rotator cuff back in 2009 in a match with Kevin [Owens], and I knew immediately I was hurt. But with these two tears, I remembered a trauma with the right one, but it wasn't as severe with what I remembered from a rotator cuff tear. It was sort of a nagging thing that bothered me for a few weeks, and I waited for it to get better, and then it didn't get better. Funny enough, when we were doing tests on my shoulders to see if everything was okay with my right one, my left one turned out to be even worse. And as I had said, that was my "bad" shoulder. So then, the doctor ordered an MRI on my bad shoulder, and that's when we found out it was torn â?? the left one, that is. That one, I honestly don't know how long it was torn. It never felt the same from when I first came back three years ago. There's a chance I re-tore it in rehab or it just progressively got worse; I honestly couldn't tell you. So, I've been working with a bad left shoulder for a couple of years now."

Lastly, the interviewer brought up Sami's mic work and how he's really just hit his stride and was asked if he'll be doing anything on TV:

"That's really not a decision that's up to me. Because of the timeline, I'd love to be in the mix for WrestleMania season; that's the most exciting time of the year for all of us. I think timeline wise, I should be ready in time for WrestleMania, so fingers crossed. There's never a good time to get hurt or get surgeries, but I do feel like I was starting to hit my stride and find my voice and find myself as a performer. Which is funny, because 16 years in, it's like I'm rediscovering the art of it in a sense, because I'm doing something I've never really done before. So, how I come back, when I come back, that all remains to be seen. But I have a pretty good track record, I'd say overall, and I plan on carrying that forward when I come back. I want to come back just as good, if not better, than I've ever been."

I was initially encouraged after reading this as I'd hoped it might explain why he was in such a lackluster, sports entertainment skit fueled feud with Bobby Lashley. WWE knew Zayn was hurt, knew he needed some time off so they went down the road they did but the fantasy didn't last long. They still could've put him in a feud with Lashley that made them both look good instead of something that didn't really elevate Lashley and looked like it was burying Sami.