No Timetable for Alexander Gustafsson's Return from Injury | MMAWeekly.com

A back injury has plagued UFC light heavyweight contender Alexander Gustafsson for years, leaving his future uncertain with no timetable to return to action.

According to Gustafsson’s co-manager, Tomas Ghassemi, “The Mauler” has been suffering from the recurring back injury for “three or four” years. It’s the same injury that forced him out of his scheduled fight with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira on Nov. 19 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

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“Pain will come up and then disappear whenever it wants,” Ghassemi told ESPN.com on Wednesday. “It’s maybe an issue with a disk. When the pain starts to go into his legs, that’s when he knows it will affect his training and that’s what happened with this one.”

Gustafsson is coming off a unanimous decision win over Jan Blachowicz on Sept. 3. He wanted return to the octagon as quickly as possible.

“We wanted a quick turnaround after this last fight. He’s in great shape, but when it flared up and went into his legs, we couldn’t take the fight. If you try to fight through it and lose, you can’t blame it after the fact. It’s better to deal with it now,” said Ghassemi.

Gustafsson has met with specialists about treatment options, but right now is taking the time he needs to deal with the issue.

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