Carrie Underwood posts new photo after 'gruesome' accident

Months after Carrie Underwood suffered an injury to her face that required 40 to 50 stitches, the singer posted a new photo of herself on Instagram Wednesday, although revealing just one side of her face.

In a New Year’s Day message, Underwood revealed details of the fall she took last autumn, in which she sustained a previously reported broken wrist as well as the injury to her face. She cautioned fans that she may look “a bit different” when they see her again.

“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 in a post on her fan club’s site (the post is behind a paywall but a rep provided its text to Variety, which appears in full below). “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 [Underwood’s husband] Mike that he had put between 40 and 50 stitches in.

See the photo below:

“Now, here we are 7 weeks later and, even though I’ve had the best people helping me, I’m still healing and not quite looking the same. I honestly don’t know how things are going to end up but I do know this: I am grateful. I am grateful that it wasn’t much, much worse.”

The singer also said she’ll be entering the studio next week to begin work on new songs. “And when I am ready to get in front of a camera, I want you all to understand why I might look a bit different,” she 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.”

See more photos of Carrie Underwood:

In today’s photo, Underwood appears to be sitting in a recording studio.

On Dec. 12 actress Adrienne Gang posted a photo of herself with Underwood (who was wearing a wrist brace), adding the following day, “I had no clue she was injured … she looked amazing!”

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