Austin recovering from spinal surgery
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Pro wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was recovering at a hospital after spinal surgery to correct years of body slamming in the ring.
The World Wrestling Federation star had surgery at Methodist Hospital Monday to relieve chronic pain in his neck, arms and legs. During the procedure, which took nearly three hours, surgeons removed bone spurs from vertebrae in his neck.
Dr. Lloyd Youngblood, the hospital's chief of neurosurgery, said Austin, 34, could be out of action for six months to a year.
"If he were an office worker, he'd be back at work in two to three weeks," Youngblood told the San Antonio Express-News. "But strenuous physical activity takes longer. What we're looking for is solid healing of the bone, and that takes a matter of several months."
