Anderson Silva feared pain pill addiction after leg injury

Anderson Silva is more than a year removed from a devastating leg injury that he suffered during a loss to Chris Weidman. As he prepares to return to the octagon to fight Nick Diaz on Jan. 31, Silva has opened up about the challenges he faced while recovering.

Earlier this week, Silva revealed that he feared he would become addicted to his pain medication.

“I thought that I was getting used to the pain but I wasn’t. I hope to not experience that anymore,” he told Globo, as translated by Bloody Elbow. “I don’t wish that for anyone. It was terrible. I’m fine now but there were months of much pain. There were a lot of strong antibiotics that I had to take to end the pain. I started to take and the pain disappeared.

“When I wasn’t feeling pain, I wanted already to take the pills, that was the point that I stopped taking them. I wasn’t addicted but I was feeling myself depressed, the medicine was letting me sleepy. I decided to stop, to avoid getting addicted. I started to fill my bathtub of ice. The pain came and I got into the ice. Pain? Ice! Then I got better.”

Silva, who will turn 40 in three months, previously admitted that he was seeing a psychologist in an attempt to restore his confidence in the wake of the injury. He later signed a new 15-fight deal with the UFC, so he must be feeling much better.

As for a potential third fight with UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman, Silva is hoping for another shot at the title.

“Only the time will tell about this. If I get credentials again to fight for the belt and I have to face Weidman one more time, I’ll face him with no problem,” he said. “I think that I still have some time to do what I love. The competition drives us.”

We know how Weidman feels about a rematch with Silva, so Silva will have to prove he can still dominate opponents before he gets another shot at the champ. Given his age, that will be no easy task.