Dan Hooker will no longer face Justin Gaethje after revealing that he’d fractured his hand in training for their clash at UFC 313.

The bout between New Zealand’s Hooker and the United States’ Gaethje was one of the most eagerly-anticipated bouts on the March 8 fight card for Las Vegas.

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But, after Hooker briefly mentioned on his daughter’s YouTube channel that he had “busted my paw,” he appeared on Sky Sports New Zealand, where he gave more detail on the injury that has ruled him out of his clash with Gaethje next month.

“One of the paws is not doing too well,” Hooker explained.

“I was sparring last night, as I do, just letting some hooks go, just throwing some bombs down range, and I just caught one of the boys on the top of the dome with my knuckle.

“I don’t think too much of it but they sent me off to get a CT scan. Had a little CT scan and they told me my hand is fractured.”

“So yeah, I obviously still would fight,” Hooker said.

“But with the medicals they squeeze your hands and ‘AARGH!’ So we’ll see how it all plays out. We’ll see if we can kick this fight down the road, or, yeah, we’ll just wait and see.

“People are like, ‘Oh, why didn’t you do this? Why didn’t you do that? Why didn’t you just be a bit more careful?’

“I wouldn’t play this sport if I was a bit careful, you know what I mean? I’d be a cricket player!

“It’s part and parcel of the sport. The training is hard, there’s a lot of crashes and bangs, and it’s just unfortunate that it was this close.

“(I’m) obviously gutted for all the fans I know that were excited for this fight. That’s probably the main thing. I think just the Lords of War were not happy, and they took it away from you.”

With Hooker ruled out of UFC 313, he already has a backup plan in mind, with his hand due to be fully healed and ready to throw in anger before the summer.

UFC 317 takes place on June 28, and Hooker has circled the date in his calendar as a potential comeback date. But he admitted that he’s unsure whether that would involve Gaethje or not.

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“Yeah, I don’t know … Justin Gaethje’s probably not going to wait that long. They might have found my replacement by now,” he said.

“But yeah, I’ll be back, good to go for International Fight Week. That’s June, July, back in Las Vegas. So that’s not too far away.

“I was expecting to take some pretty hefty damage in this fight and be recovering for quite a while. So yeah, (I’ll be ready) by the time International Fight Week comes around. It’s just a small fracture in my hand.

“We’ll get it sorted ASAP, and we’ll be back in there in no time.”

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