Meta Chief Mark Zuckerberg undergoes surgery for martial arts knee injury

Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg underwent surgery to repair a torn knee ligament sustained during a mixed martial arts session, he said Friday in a post on Instagram.

“Tore my ACL sparring and just got out of surgery to replace it,” Zuckerberg wrote in the caption of a post with a series of photos showing him in a hospital bed, his knee bandaged and in a brace. The CEO, 39, said he plans to continue his training for “a competitive MMA fight early next year.”

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The founder of Facebook, the social-media company that was renamed Meta, is known for setting the overall strategy for the business and getting deeply involved in efforts like artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the metaverse.

Zuckerberg took up MMA during the pandemic. Since then, his involvement has moved past casual, having built an octagonal fighting ring in his backyard. A month ago, the CEO posted a photo of himself with two black eyes and a bruised nose, noting that “sparring got a little out of hand.”

Meta spends handsomely to protect its CEO outside of the fighting ring. The company planned to increase its pretax spending on Zuckerberg’s personal security to $14 million this year, up from $10 million annually, according to a February regulatory filing. That amount doesn’t include other security expenses the company accrues on Zuckerberg’s behalf.