Country singer Carrie Underwood warns fans she ‘might look a bit different’ after injury

In mid-November, country star Carrie Underwood tripped and fell on the stairs outside her Nashville home, and according to her publicist she had “non life-threatening injuries including a broken wrist and cuts and abrasions.”

Underwood, one of the top-selling artists in country music, tweeted an update at the time to her eight million followers. “I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m doing great. Had surgery on my wrist yesterday & all went well,” she said, and jokingly added, “I’ll be setting off airport metal detectors from now on.”

However, on New Year’s Day, Underwood sent a letter to her fan club members and revealed that her injuries were actually more serious than initially reported. “There is also another part of the story that I haven’t been ready to talk about, since I have still been living it and there has been much uncertainty as to how things will end up,” she wrote. “It’s crazy how a freak random accident can change your life.”

Underwood, 34, explained that in addition to her broken wrist, she injured her face. “I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but when I came out of surgery the night of my fall, the doctor told Mike that he had put between 40-50 stitches in,” she wrote, referring to her husband, hockey player Mike Fisher. “Now here we are 7 weeks later and, even though I’ve had the best people helping me, I’m still healing and not looking quite the same.”

The singer didn’t go into detail, but said she’s going into the recording studio next week to work on new music — so presumably, she’ll appear in public sometime in the not-distant future. The next major country music event is the Academy of Country Music Awards in April. A week before her fall, Underwood co-hosted the Country Music Association Awards with Brad Paisley for the 10th year in a row.

“When I am ready to get in front of a camera, I want you all to understand why I might look a bit different,” Underwood wrote. “I’m hoping that, by then, the differences are minimal, but, again, I just don’t know how it’s all going to end up.”

After spending most of 2016 on tour supporting her fifth studio album, Storyteller, Underwood said early last year that she planned to take “a little break” from music to spend time with her husband and toddler son. She has been mostly out of the public eye since her accident, except for posing for a photo with a cast member from Bravo’s Below Deck, who spotted her at the gym in December.

Ultimately, Underwood said in her message to fans, she’s relieved things turned out the way they did.

“I am grateful that it wasn’t much, much worse,” she wrote, adding that she’s going through physical therapy for her wrist. “I’ve still got a ways to go in the recovery process, but it’s encouraging to see every day be a little better than the last.”