BTS member Suga has opened up about the surgery that forced him to sit out the latter part of 2020.
“It’ll get better once I take off this brace,” the 27-year-old told Weverse Magazine. “Apparently, it takes several months for a full recovery, but I'm trying to get better as fast as possible."
In early November, Suga had surgery to fix damaged cartilage in his left shoulder. BTS management company Big Hit Entertainment said in a statement at the time that the singer had experienced pain since a 2012 accident and was diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder the following year. In 2019, doctors told Suga he had a labral tear.
"The pain is one thing, but when my shoulders got worse, I couldn't even raise my arms," Suga recalled. "But when I heard that this might recur when getting the surgery at a young age, I waited for the right time and had decided to get it done ... regardless of the COVID-19 situation."
Suga appeared in hologram form during a performance by BTS at the Mnet Asian Music Awards in December.
“There’s this 3D studio where we shot it. I shot, scanned, and acted there, but couldn't see the actual result at the studio,” Suga explained. “I thought a sense of displacement was unavoidable, and that was exactly the case.”
Suga said he “can’t say it feels great” to watch his group mates perform without him. “I could see the emptiness because we've been together as a group of seven for so long. Not necessarily because I'm not there but because something that should be there is missing.”