MD: Anderson Silva cleared to spar, but mind has to follow
Dr. Marcio Tannure: “[Anderson Silva] feels unsafe now, maybe sees some images on his head, so we can’t demand too much from him right now.”
Anderson Silva suffered a gruesome leg break at UFC 168 on December 28. Nearly six months later, “The Spider” has been cleared to resume sparring. His body is healing, but his doctor cautions that the hardest fight is mental.
Guilherme Cruz spoke with Dr. Marcio Tannure, medical director for the Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission.
“He was already cleared by his doctors in the United States, but he likes to hear my opinion because I was with him in every step of his recovery, including the surgery,” said Dr. Tannure to MMAFighting.
“There’s no exact recovery timetable for this type of injury. It could take three months or one year, but he had a good recovery and we’re happy. It’s going as we expected.”
“It would be really premature to say something now, he hasn’t even sparred yet. His recovery was great, but now we have to work on his mind and get rid of the mental block. It could take a while, maybe not. It would be really hard to say right now he can or can’t fight this year. It’s not the moment, and he’s the one that is going to feel it.”
“He has to start slowly. It still is really hard for him to work on that. He feels unsafe now, maybe sees some images on his head, so we can’t demand too much from him right now. That’s the toughest barrier to overcome. He will only lose this fear with training, and then he will know if he’s ready to fight or not. That’s absolutely normal.”
