Alexander Volkanovski Explains Blood Infection, Says He Could’ve Lost His Leg

After battling a blood infection, Alexander Volkanovski has finally returned home, now detailing his recent health struggles.

After finally returning home, Alexander Volkanovski has now explained the severity of his recent blood infection.

Just days after defeating Jose Aldo in a career best win, Volkanovski was hospitalized with an unforeseen blood infection. Thankfully, he soon recovered though and has now returned home. Speaking to ESPN, ‘The Great’ has since revealed more details about the infection, even explaining how it came to be in the first place. “I guess it was to hard to tell because I was injured because of the trauma from the kicks, and that sort of threw me off,” he said.

“But once I went on the plane it went crazy and obviously I just started feeling really crook [sick]. Then I went on the next flight and that’s when it really hit me; I had 40+ degree temperatures, it was nasty stuff. I was delirious by then and didn’t really know what was going on, but I was like ‘get me a doctor, I need a doctor’. So they did that and, yeah, it was pretty serious, the antibiotics didn’t work straight away; we were really worried about it hitting my tendons and bones because it was very close, once it does that you can have problems.”

While obviously far from ideal after defeating a legend, Volkanovski is left thankful for how things eventually panned out. “So we were pretty lucky the plane stopped in Chile rather than if I’d got on the next flight. Within a couple of hours I would have had to tell them we’ve got to turn this flight around, and by then the damage would have been done and I could have lost the leg, lose your life. That stuff’s very, very serious, but it didn’t get to that stage. We got it just at the right time; we left it too long where it rocked me so much, but we got in just in time for it not to do serious damage.”

On the other hand, Volkanovski was somewhat frustrated by the UFC 241 announcement that followed his recent victory. At that event, Max Holloway will return to 145 lbs, defending his title though not against Volkanovski but opposite Frankie Edgar instead. Either way, Volkanovski’s recovery positions him well for an eventual title shot regardless of who leaves UFC 241 as champion.

For Volkanovski’s full interview with ESPN, click here.