TEHRAN – Iranian freestyle wrestler Hassan Yazdani will return to the match in next year’s June.

He underwent shoulder surgery in Nice, France last month.

Yazdani, nicknamed The Greatest, returned to the mat for the first time in eight months in June 2024. After winning the Asian Games in October, he had undergone shoulder surgery.

He participated in the Ranking Series in Budapest in June to prove his fitness and easily won a gold medal.

The 30-year-old freestyler was fit for the 2024 Olympic Games and had not a difficult job to qualify for the final match of the 86kg but he lost to Bulgaria’s Magomed Ramazanov 7-1 in the final after he seemed to be struggling with pain.

The media reports had suggested that the surgery would keep him out for more than a year but it seems Yazdani will be fit until June.