Whose surgery was Stephen Strange undertaking during the New York attack?

Question

In Avengers: Endgame Bruce Banner/Professor Hulk travels back in time to the New York attack depicted in the first Avengers movie and runs into the Ancient One, who tells him that Stephen Strange is currently performing surgery somewhere in the city (and not a master of the mystic arts yet).

However, in Doctor Strange we see Strange take a call about someone with a spinal injury from a prototype battlesuit just as he crashes his vehicle and can no longer perform surgery. I've read that this person was the unfortunate Hammer test-pilot we see during the Senate hearing in Iron Man 2 - but that event is long before the New York attack, so how is Stephen Strange performing surgery after his injuries (before learning to overcome them at Kamar-Taj)?

Answer 1

We don't know who is undergoing the surgery that Strange is performing during the New York attack.

I'm not sure what you've read regarding the identity of the battle-suit injury being discussed immediately prior to Strange's car crash, but the only references I can find to support it being the Hammer pilot from Iron Man 2 are unsupported fan theories.

If we look at the MCU timeline, we see that Strange's crippling injury took place in February 2016, which is several years after the battle of New York in the Avengers movie - so there is no reason he cannot perform surgery at the time Banner meets the Ancient One.