How did Carrie Underwood's accident happen? How the singer healed after the 2017 fall

Carrie Underwood suffered a significant setback in November 2017 when she sustained some severe facial injuries after an accident.

The accident happened when the country singer and songwriter was out walking her dogs. She tripped and fell down the steps of her Nashville home, which resulted in a broken wrist and facial injuries that required multiple stitches. In 2018, Underwood appeared on The Bobby Bones Show, where she talked about the accident and revealed,

“I was taking the dogs out to go pee one last time, and I just—I tripped. There was one step, and I went to… and I didn’t let go of the leashes! Priorities! So that’s why my left hand’s fine. But I went to catch myself and I just missed a step. If I had fallen anywhere else, I would have been perfectly fine, but it was one step that messed everything up.”

Due to the accident, Carrie Underwood got over 40 facial stitches, which she shared with her followers through an update on her official fan club website.

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Carrie Underwood got more than 40 facial stitches after the accident

The "Before He Cheats" singer had to undergo surgery for her broken wrist, while her facial injuries forced the doctor to put in more than 40 stitches. In a message to her fans, Underwood shared,

“It’s crazy how a freak random accident can change your life. In addition to breaking my wrist, I somehow managed to injure my face as well. I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but when I came out of surgery the night of my fall, the doctor told Mike [Carrie Underwood's husband] that he had put between 40 and 50 stitches in.”

After the accident and stitches, the singer was also worried about her singing prowess. She later shared her concerns during an interview with Variety, where she called singing after the accident a “mind game.’ Here’s what Underwood was quoted saying,

“I had stitches inside my mouth, outside my mouth. It was physically impossible … Going into the studio for the first time, it was a mind game: “Do I sound the same? Is my diction the same? Does my mouth move the same as it did before?”

Underwood, who sustained an injury above her upper lip, recovered within months and returned to the stage in April 2018.

Read on to learn more about her recovery process after the 2017 accident.

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It took months for Carrie Underwood to recover and return to the stage in 2018

Immediately after her accident, the "Ghost Story" singer canceled her Country Rising benefit concert. Although the injuries were not life-threatening, it still took her months to heal and return to the stage. In 2018, during her first appearance on The Bobby Bones Show, Carrie Underwood shared,

“I've been very fortunate in the healing process and... I mean, when we… I was lucky that when it happened everything was kind of shutting down in the music world, and we had the holidays and stuff like that. But it’s… I was at a point where I didn't know how things were going to end up. I didn't know what was going to go on. I didn't know what it was going to heal like.”

Carrie Underwood also shared about her initial concerns of “creeping” someone out with her scars when she started resuming her everyday life. In another update on her fan club website in April 2018, the “Cry Pretty” artist wrote,

“My wrist is almost back to normal, about 90% there…and the docs say that last 10% will come in time. And my face has been healing pretty nicely as well. I definitely feel more like myself than I have in a while. One of the silver linings for me in this healing process is the time I’ve gotten to spend with Mike and Isaiah. I’ve been calling it “forced relaxation.”

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After taking time off to heal and spend time with her family, Carrie Underwood returned on April 15, 2018. She performed on the stage at the 53rd Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards.