Former Glory kickboxing champion Gokhan Saki hasn’t competed in the UFC since July 2018.

Over the span of his 23-month absence from competition, Saki (1-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) has remained largely quiet and out of the spotlight. However, in an Instagram post on Monday, Saki revealed he recently underwent a successful surgical procedure.

According to Saki, the surgery was the first of two to repair a pair of fractured elbows. While he did not give a timeline for his second surgery, Saki wrote he hopes to return to training a few weeks after the second procedure.

“Update for my followers,” Saki wrote (edited for grammar). “After a year of pain and injections in my elbows, they found out that in both elbows I have fractured pieces that caused pain and inflammations. My first surgery is done and it went (well). Second to come. Within a few weeks, I can resume the training hopefully without any pain and obstacles. For every level, there is another devil, that’s life. But remember the darker the night, the brighter the morning, so we never ever give up. Keep you guys posted. Thank you all.”

Saki has split his two UFC appearances. After a successful promotional debut against Luis Henrique da Silva, Saki was knocked out by Khalil Rountree in 96 seconds at UFC 226.

In March 2019, Saki was briefly linked to a booking against Saparbeg Safarov, but withdrew due to injury.

View this post on Instagram

Update for my followers. After a year of pain and injections in my elbows they found out that in my both elbows I have fractured pieces. That caused pain and inflammations. My first surgery is done and it went . Second to come. Within a few weeks I can resume the training hopefully without any pain and obstacles. For every level, there is another devil, that’s life. But remember the darker the night, the brighter the morning so we never ever give up. Keep you guys posted. Thank you all.

A post shared by Gokhan Saki (@gokhansaki) on Jun 22, 2020 at 4:29am PDT