Lady Gaga cancels tour after hip injury

Lady Gaga
Credit: Getty Images

Lady Gaga is canceling the remainder of her “Born This Way Ball” tour — 21 dates in all — because she injured her hip and needs surgery, Live Nation said Wednesday.

Gaga, 26, tore the labrum of her right hip as a result of repeated strain, Live Nation said.

“The labrum is a cushioning of the hip joint,” says Dr. Robert Gotlin, director of the orthopedic and sports rehab program at Beth Israel Medical Center. “It’s a rubbery-type substance that’s the shock absorber between the femur and the hip socket.”

Dr. Gotlin says her injury could be congenital, meaning she was born with an anatomic irregularity that led to a tear (she was born this way!), or that she injured herself “doing a lot of jumping, hopping and torquing.”

It could also be those wacky shoes of hers: “Anything that has potential stress on her hip — like shoes, jumping, hopping or irregular surfaces” could cause injury, he added.

Dr. Gotlin was quick to note that Gaga’s pain might actually not be due to the tear in itself, and that she could have an underlying problem, but that the only way we’ll be able to know that is if she completes the surgery and her pain goes away.

But it’ll be a bumpy road before she’s back to her wild self: Dr. Gotlin says it’ll be about six weeks until she’s feeling OK, and that she’ll need about three months of physical therapy before she starts getting back to her routine.

On Tuesday, Gaga tweeted that she had to postpone several shows due to the synovitis, an inflammation of the joints, which she had been hiding.

“I’ve been hiding a show injury and chronic pain for sometime now, over the past month it has worsened,” she wrote on Tuesday afternoon. “I’ve been praying it would heal.”

Ticketholders are able to get refunds, Live Nation stated.

Follow Meredith Engel on Twitter @MeredithAtMetro.