However, as others have pointed out, it was his drug addiction that was the basic reason he didn't return for 4 years.
Shawn had surgery in 1999 to fuse his L4 and L5 vertebrae. According to Shawn, the surgery repaired the damage in his back, leaving him basically pain free. He probably would have been able to wrestle again in 2000, but he was still heavily in to painkillers and other drugs at this time though.
In 2000, Shawn wrestled one match in his own federation, the Texas Wrestling Alliance against "Venom" aka Paul Diamond better known as Max Moon in the WWF. The match was not 5 stars by any means, but it was basically a try out match for Shawn to determine if he would be able to come back to the ring.
in 2001 Shawn was supposed to be coming back to the WWF and was even supposed to wrestle at Wrestlemania X7, but he appeared earlier in the year pilled out of his mind and this is when Vince McMahon basically "fired" Shawn from the WWF until he got clean.
So I don't think the injury was fake, but it certainly was not as bad as originally reported. I remember around 1999 people were saying that Michaels was risking death if he even stepped in the ring again.
The biggest proof of this is an interview Shawn gave for WWF Magazine in 2001. He was asked about his injury and if he wrestled again could he possibly end up in a wheelchair and he said no, he could wrestle but he would have to watch for certain moves that compressed his spine. He said he could probably do a pile-driver, but if he were to do one from the top rope or to drop a leg from the top rope, he probably would be unable to walk the next day.
Most likely Shawn would have been okay to wrestle again by 2000, but it was a risk with as many drugs as he was on, hence when he came back in 2002 clean and safe to work with in the ring again...
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