‘Minotauro’ Nogueira Eyes UFC Return; Begins Physical Therapy on Surgically Repaired Right Arm

Since confirming the cancellation of his UFC 149 bout with Cheick Kongo, the leader of Team Nogueira has been attending daily sessions of physical therapy with Dr. Angela Cortes. “Minotauro” explained that he now needs muscle-building work in his right arm, where he underwent surgery following a gruesome submission loss to Frank Mir at UFC 140.

"I felt pain in my last four sparring sessions, and we had been controlling the pain with physiotherapy,” Nogueira told Sherdog.com. “But with the intensified training in wrestling after the arrival of Eric Albarracin, I started doing more complex positions for the arm, and, [since] I put a metal in it [for the surgery], it reached a level of sensitivity that wasn't expected and didn't happen at the beginning of training. I had to change the schedule in order to get back to training 100 percent.”

As of now, there is no timetable for Nogueira’s return. According to Cortes, the fighter isn't yet adapted to the metal placed in his arm, and there is no way to tell when this will happen. The physiotherapist said that for now the Brazilian will attend one session of physical therapy per day. When “Minotauro” returns to training, the load will increase.

"I talked with two neurologists and there is no way to tell when he'll be back, because it depends on the interpretation of his brain. We need to change this, since there is a strange body inside his arm and he needs to adapt to be able to execute the movements that he would normally do,” Cortes said.