It looks like “The Spider” is down but not out. During a conference call Dr. Steven Sanders, who has been working closely with Anderson Silva and the UFC, has said that Silva was concerned about when can he get back in there.
“In the pre-op area, his questions were, ‘When can I train?'” Sanders said.
When talking about the the severity and instant reaction to the injury Dr. Sanders seemed very optimistic, “The minute I saw it and recognized it, I knew it was fixable,” he said. “We are not even 48 hours from the surgery, and tibia fractures, though we can get them to heal, can have slower healing. So in general, my prognosis would be a fracture healing somewhere in the nature of three to six months. But there’s also soft tissue components that have to heal, and then of course a rehabilitative process as well.”
You might think the injury looked gruesome but, according to Dr. Sanders, it could have been much much worse for Anderson Silva and it was “extremely close” to being so.
“Fortunately for Anderson, the skin did not break,” he said. “But where could an injury like that go? An injury like that could go where, as I mentioned, the skin breaks, and now you’ve got this exposed bone in the environment of an Octagon, and so his risk of infection goes up meteorically. He could have also twisted in such a different direction where he could’ve potentially lacerated an artery going to the foot, in which case you now have what we call vascular compromise. He could’ve, in that case, potentially needed a vascular reconstructive procedure to reattach an artery. Injuries like this can, at times, even be limb threatening. If the fracture is severe enough, if it compromises vascular supply to the feet and vascular supply cannot be re-established, it can result in an amputation.”
What is probably the most shocking thing the doctor said is that Anderson Silva is already on crutches and even he stated that this was “amazing”.
Estimated time return to training for Silva is 6-9 months depending on how quickly his bones and the tissue around it heal. Extensive physiotherapy will be needed but it is looking likely that we will see GOAT back in the cage in the future.