Mayra Bueno Silva was five seconds away from probably losing her UFC debut to Gillian Robertson, and will need surgery to fix a left knee injury she sustained in the fight.

“Sheetara” submitted Robertson with an armbar at 4:55 of the opening round in Sao Paulo on Sept. 22, and told the media moments after the win, that she injured her knee defending Robertson’s first takedown attempt. Six days later, Siva’s coach Diego Lima confirmed to MMA Fighting that she will go under the knife.

“It’s not too serious, but she needs surgery” Lima said. “Nobody wants to have surgery, of course, but it’s a small ligament injury and we will have surgery.”

Dr. Wagner Castropil, who conducted surgeries on several Chute Boxe fighters before at Sao Paulo’s Instituto Vita, will be the one to work on Silva’s knee, Lima said.

At the post-fight media scrum in Sao Paulo, the unbeaten flyweight admitted she would probably have lost the fight if Robertson hadn’t tapped in the opening round.

“I twisted my knee in the first takedown she had,” Silva said Saturday night. “When we started scrambling on the ground, I couldn’t do my guard game because I got hurt pretty early, but thank God I got that armbar and she tapped before the end of the round.”

“I have a warrior spirit so I would come back (to the second round), but I can’t say if I would be be able to fight because I can’t put my foot on the ground,” she added. “When I heard that sound [indicating the final 10 seconds] I started bending her arm and thinking ‘she won’t tap, she won’t tap,’ but when she tapped, thank God… It was the mercy shot.”

According to Lima, Silva is expected to be cleared to fight again in the first half of 2019.