Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham, after ‘most painful’ injury, regrets delaying shoulder surgery

Jude Bellingham has said the best time for him to have had shoulder surgery was after Euro 2024, following a successful procedure the following summer in London.

The 22-year-old opened up in a YouTube video about the procedure in July 2025 — a year-and-a-half after a fall against Rayo Vallecano in November 2023, which he said was the “most painful” experience he had been through.

The England international decided to undergo surgery on his left shoulder at London’s Fortius Clinic in 2025 to relieve the issue.

“Really worried, you know, about everything that could go wrong. Really, most anxious I’ve been about anything. The hardest feeling I’ve had before something, I’d say,” Bellingham said on his channel.

Jude Bellingham underwent injury on his left shoulder in summer 2025. Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images

“It’s more the instability of knowing that if I land funny, it can always come out.”

“The thing I’m most looking forward to is being able to play without a brace again.”

The Real Madrid star has wrestled with shoulder issues for a few years, suffering a dislocation at the start of the 2022-23 season at Borussia Dortmund, opting not to undergo surgery before the World Cup in Qatar.

“I just couldn’t risk the timeline with the 2022 World Cup. We pushed off and held off,” Bellingham said.

“I think the actual shoulder injury itself has a lot of effect on the rest of my body.

“I had a point where I felt like I couldn’t move because of a pain I had in my back so I got a scan and there was a herniated disc on the side of my shoulder.

Bellingham’s injury against Rayo Vallecano on Nov. 5, 2023 saw the attacking midfielder miss two matches.

The then-Real manager Carlo Ancelotti commented at the time that while Bellingham would not undergo procedure, “if it gets dislocated over and over again, you might need surgery.”

“The one against Rayo Vallecano felt worse than the normal ones, probably the most painful thing I’ve been through at the time,” Bellingham said in the video.

“It stayed out for a while and I couldn’t get it back in myself, which I’d been able to do before the previous times.

“It felt like an eternity before the physios got it back in… it was a horrible experience.”

Bellingham is back in the England squad after fitness problems this season. Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images

Bellingham spoke of his quandary over not taking surgery during his first season in the Spanish capital.

“I didn’t want to have to disrupt the year that the team was having, that I was having, to miss three months and maybe change the trajectory of the season,” he said.

“In hindsight, I think the best time to do it would have been after the Euros.

“Obviously, the season ended perfectly with Madrid and then not quite as well with England and I didn’t want that to be the last taste I had in my mouth for three months.”

England were defeated by Spain in the final of the tournament, with Bellingham starting every match — including vs. Slovakia in the round of 16, where he rescued his nation with a last-gasp overhead kick.

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But immediate issues in the Spanish top flight in the 2024-25 season made Bellingham’s mind up.

“[In the] second or third game, going for a tackle and it’s come out again. Then it’s just like.. [if I say] no, [I’m] going to you’re going to stay in the brace for the rest of the season now.”

After recovering from surgery at the respected Marylebone clinic, he returned to La Liga action in September 2025, but that has since been followed by other injury frustrations — including his hamstring.

“Now, being back to my best physically will aid all that into coming into one, and seeing the best of me, hopefully,” Bellingham said.

Bellingham’s steady recovery has seen him rewarded with a recall to Thomas Tuchel’s England squad, and he may appear against Japan on March 31.