Costa Rican Carlos Muñoz will undergo surgery in California this week and will miss the Sunset and Portugal stages, he himself announced on his Instagram.

“My first CT at Pipeline. I managed to get into the top 10. It’s been a long journey to see my name on that list, thanks to Yaweh and all the support from my sponsors and the people along the way,” he headed his message.

“I put my hope in God for this process and I still don’t know exactly when I will return, but I will continue to live life the whole way,” he added.

In the final minutes of his heat against Frederico Morais, Muñoz hit the reef at Pipe and was assisted out of the water by lifeguards. Between this heat and the quarter-finals, he decided to go back into the water and minutes after entering, he came out in pain again.

On social media he was seen wearing a sling all these days. It is not known exactly what the operation consists of.

Medical websites on the Internet report the following regarding the different recovery times for shoulder dislocation surgery: “The recovery period varies from one to two weeks for surgeries without rotator cuff injuries, to two to three months if the rotator cuff has been repaired. It can even be as long as 4 to 6 months for throwing or contact athletes.”

Peruvian surfer Gabriel Villarán suffered an injury that appears to be similar and did not undergo surgery. He told DUKE that his recovery time would be four months. He said that if he had surgery, the recovery time would be longer.

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