Rhea Ripley will be sidelined indefinitely due to a fractured orbital socket around her right eye, an injury she suffered during NXT on Tuesday night.

The 28-year-old was left bloodied following an attack by Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez in the parking lot. The attack itself wasn't shown on the broadcast, with the camera capturing the heel pair walking away from the scene.

It's unclear whether the backstage attack was intended to explain a legitimate injury for Ripley or if this is simply a way to write her off television for the time being.

In the event it's the latter, it's surprising WWE would remove her from the picture temporarily when she only returned in July from a lengthy absence.

A little more than a week after she beat Becky Lynch at WrestleMania XL, she had to vacate the Women's World Championship in April because of a shoulder injury sustained in an attack by Morgan.

After coming back, Ripley was unable to gain her vengeance at SummerSlam thanks to Dominik Mysterio's betrayal.

The way their rematch at Bad Blood ended led fans to believe the story wasn't over. The Australian won by disqualification, which meant Morgan retained her title.

Survivor Series: WarGames is a month away. There's still the chance Tuesday's attack and Wednesday's announcement is teeing up a rubber match between Ripley and Morgan on that show.

But saying Ripley is on the shelf for "an undisclosed amount of time" will lead many fans to wonder whether this could extend all the way to the Royal Rumble on February 1 since that's the next big premium live event after Survivor Series.

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