Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-65.31.134.55-20130328025957/@comment-1672596-20150131132930

121.223.0.76 wrote: To anyone asking why wasn't the "horn" removed, I read that it was shrapnel from a helicopter explosion (If anyone else has played Ground Zeroes). My theory is that due to where the shrapnel was embedded (obviously deep in his head, and probably very close to his brain) a surgical removal would have been too risky in the sense that it could have killed him. With Big Boss in a coma, no one would make the decision that could potentially kill the greatest living soldier. Hence the reason we see it "growing", I think that as his head is healing, the shrapnel is gradually being pushed out of his head. This could possibly explain the reason he has no "horn" in the end of MGS4. Anyway, that's just my 2 cents. I'm not so sure if that was from the helicopter crash alluded to in Ground Zeroes, especially when the scene where he falls into a coma clearly doesn't show a shrapnel in his head.