Keith Lee was absent from WWE television from February 2021 until July due to issues with his health, and the Raw star has said that he thought he was going to have to retire.

In August of this year, Keith Lee opened up about dealing with heart issues at the beginning of 2021, which is why he was absent from WWE TV for five months.

The former NXT Champion has now opened about his health issues to Ryan Satin, explaining just how bad things were.

Lee told Satin on the Out of Character podcast that he thought he was going to have to officially retire at one stage due to the problems with his heart:

“At the end of the day, I’m just grateful that I was able to comeback and be back in the ring because that fourth or fifth MRI, where I had to go to Pittsburgh, I was resigned to the fact that my career was done. I was just ready to be like, ‘Okay, I guess it’s time to pursue some other projects that I have an interest in.’ Then I got some good news. It took a lot of work to come back because when you’re a 330-340 pound athlete, the amount of training and power and explosiveness it takes to be that big and do backflips.

Keith Lee returned to Monday Night Raw with his new 'Bearcat' gimmick for the first time since September last night, beating Cedric Alexander in a pretty convincing fashion.

There is no word on the exact plans that WWE has for Keith Lee and his new character, but he is rumoured to be one of the featured players on Monday Night Raw moving forwards.

You can watch Keith Lee live every week on Monday Night Raw over here in the UK on BT Sport.Thanks to Fightful for the transcription.