Tom Aspinall shares major update on eye injury and UFC return plans

It appears Tom Aspinall's MMA return is some way off. The UFC heavyweight champion got poked in both eyes by Ciryl Gane during their UFC 321 headliner. Now the Briton will need to undergo surgery in both eyes before he gets back in the octagon.

During a recent segment on his YouTube channel, the 32-year-old shared a major update about the injury while touching on his MMA return plans:

"That's the plan. By the time this comes out, I will probably have had surgery on one side already; the next surgery is coming mid-January. So, we are working towards getting back, and that's the plan."

Check out Tom Aspinall's comments below:

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At UFC 321, Aspinall was getting largely outstruck by the Frenchman in the opening round when the eye poke happened. Unable to recover from the foul, the bout was ruled a no-contest.

Many fans and fighters have slammed Aspinall's decision not to continue fighting after the foul, with some insinuating that he took the easy way out of a fight he appeared to be losing.

However, while initial medical reports suggested Aspinall had not incurred any long-term injuries from the foul, he has since revealed that he has been diagnosed with bilateral traumatic Brown syndrome.

Bilateral traumatic Brown syndrome is a rare condition where injury or trauma to the superior oblique muscles around the eyes causes issues with the upward and inward movement of the eye.

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Tom Aspinall is upset with Dana White's comments about his eye injury

Tom Aspinall was particularly upset with how Dana White reacted to his eye injury. During the post-fight press conference at UFC 321, White appeared frustrated at how the fight ended, and said:

"You definitely can't make somebody continue if they think they feel they've been injured. Only Tom knows what happened. Couldn't he see, couldn't he see?... [Gane] had Tom bloodied up, and Tom didn't want to continue the fight."

During an interview with Ariel Helwani, Aspinall addressed the UFC head honcho's comments, noting that he was disappointed with how White handled the issue:

"I was very disappointed, because he was already giving updates on my health, and he had no idea what was going on, so disappointed, mate, disappointed... [White] started giving updates that there was nothing wrong with my eye, when that isn't the case. I've done a lot for the UFC, so, yeah, disappointing."

Edited by Ujwal Jain