The full extent of Tom Aspinall’s vision woes after suffering a double-eye poke against Ciryl Gane last year have been laid bare in a new article that reveals the UFC heavyweight champion struggles to perform daily tasks while waiting to see whether his eyes will heal enough to resume his fighting career.
Yahoo! sports journalist Petesy Carroll went behind-the-scenes to hear from Aspinall himself and people close to him to discover the truth behind his recovery, and it makes for grim reading.
“Nearly four months later, the champ still can’t track moving targets,” Caroll states in a must-read article for Yahoo! Sports. “His eyes hurt if he sends too many text messages. He gets vertigo if he changes directions suddenly. He misses people’s hands when he tries to shake them. He can no longer do the thing that’s given him an identity since he was a child. Hell, he struggles to do the most basic drills. Sometimes, he struggles to play with his kids. He has to ask people to drive him to most places he goes and ask those same people to bring him home afterward.”
One of Aspinall’s coaches, former WBA light heavyweight champion Stipe Drvis, also reveals in the article that the 32-year-old now has major difficulties even hitting the pads, making training for MMA almost pointless at this moment in time.
“He’s still explosive, but his balance is completely different,” Drviš told Carroll. “It’s not normal, but this is the situation he is in. He cannot see right. It’s a big problem.”
Aspinall himself admits that even this basic drill that he’s done a million times is now a major challenge.
“Every time I try to change direction, it’s very disorientating,” Aspinall confesses. “The best way I can describe it is that it feels like I’m standing on a boat. I get really dizzy and it’s very difficult to focus on the area I’m attacking. It’s like I don’t know where I’m going.”
To get an idea of just how bad it is, one team-mate reveals that he went to shake Aspinall’s hand, the champion clutched at thin-air after misjudging where his hand was.
Fans have been speculating when Aspinall might be getting back to action to defend his title, especially with the UFC: White House event looming large in June, but it’s now clear that this isn’t even something that could be considered at this stage.
“I’m not even thinking about fighting at the minute,” Aspinall said. “All I’m thinking about is getting my health right, so thinking about a return date is pointless until that happens.”
It’s important to stress that it’s not all doom and gloom as Carroll was with Aspinall as he underwent a double eye operation earlier this week, which it’s hoped will help his forward facing vision, but there’s no guarantees.
“It’s eyes, innit?” Aspinall’s dad Andy said. “Who knows? We’re just gonna have to wait and see if this works.”
