It's possible those rumors were part of a strategy, along with the episode ending beatdown by Triple H, to write Roman Reigns off television. The idea would be to keep him from being booed on the road to WrestleMania, and set up what they hope would be a big pop for his return.
WWE is also running a surgery angle with Reigns, so looks like this is probably what is going to go down. If so, it's hilarious.