Michael Bisping sidelined with eye injury, Lyoto Machida steps in to fight Mark Munoz at UFC Fight Night 30

The injury bug has just hit UFC Fight Night 30.

Michael Bisping was expected to face Mark Munoz in the main event of the Manchester card, but was forced to withdraw after suffering an eye injury in training. It is unclear how serious the injury is and if it will have long term effects on Bisping's career.

The event is being held at the Phones 4u Arena on Oct. 26, 2013 and the main card is set to air on Fox Sports 1.

Bisping was slowly working his way back into title contention following a stunning knockout loss at the hands of Vitor Belfort at UFC on FX: Belfort vs Bisping in January. A win over Munoz would have helped make the case in what is now a wide open middleweight division.

The injury has forced the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to pull Lyoto Machida out of his bout with Tim Kennedy to fight Munoz in order to provide a strong main event. It will be Machida's middleweight debut and stylistically, a much different opponent than the one Munoz was training for.

ESPN was the first to break the news and MMAJunkie subsequently confirmed it with UFC officials.

This has also left Tim Kennedy without an opponent for his bout at Fight for the Troops 3 in Fort Campbell in November. Kennedy recently picked up a dominant win over Roger Gracie in his promotional debut.