San Francisco, Nov 4 (IANS The much-awaited cage fight between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg may not happen very soon as the Meta founder has injured himself while training and underwent a surgery.

In a post on Instagram, Zuckerberg posted: “Tore my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) sparring and just got out of surgery to replace it.”

He was apparently training for his next competitive mixed martial arts (MMA) match. 

“I was training for a competitive MMA fight early next year, but now that's delayed a bit. Still looking forward to doing it after I recover. Thanks to everyone for the love and support,” the Meta CEO said late on Friday.

His followers wished him speedy recovery. Recovery from such injury takes up to a year for professional athletes.

Last month, Zuckerberg posted a selfie on Instagram, showing his face swollen and marked by multiple bruises under the eyes and on the nose.

The Meta CEO said it happened when sparring -- a common training method in combat sports -- got out of hand. 

"Sparring got a little out of hand. May need to update my avatar," he said. 

For quite some time, Zuckerberg has been involved in combat sports such as MMA and Jiu-Jitsu. He has been seen more active after X-owner Musk challenged him to a "cage fight". 

The talk of the fight initially started when Musk in June replied to a tweet about the news that Meta was releasing a Twitter (now X) competitor. 

In August, Musk said that the cage fight with Zuckerberg would livestream at an epic location in Italy. 

Recently, Zuckerberg was awarded his blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by his coach Professor Dave Camarillo after several years of training.