Injury delays CM Punk UFC debut

Cape Town - The highly anticipated octagon debut of Phil Brooks, AKA CM Punk, has been delayed.

Punk is scheduled to have back surgery in Chicago to repair a herniated disc according to MMAFighting.com.

The former WWE champion has been battling with back injury since his days of professional wrestling and seems to have progressively gotten worse.

"My back has always bugged me. Figured it was just wrestling sh*t. Turns out it was," said Punk. 

"It got bad enough enough to the point where I couldn’t do anything the week before I went to train with the New Jersey Devils last month. One day I could manage, the next day I couldn’t. I’ve been in agony for almost a month. Chiropractor, acupuncture, massage, cryotherapy … nothing worked. "

This marks the second injury that Punk has sustained since signing for the UFC in Dec. 2014.

A shoulder injury was expected to delay his debut but the UFC announced that his promotional debut would be in April/May.

On Saturday Punk and the MMA fans around the world finally learned who would stand across the cage from him on his debut.

The 24-year-old Mickey Gall (2-0), who defeated Mike Jackson on Saturday, will welcome Punk to the UFC when he returns. 

Now that plans have to change due to the post surgery recovery time of 4-6 weeks, Punk could still be on track to get one fight under his belt in 2016.

"This is just a bump in the road. I’m positive about this," Punk added.