“If I ain’t sleeping in the day, if I ain’t getting in the sauna. Seeing the physiotherapist twice a week. If I’m not having that time on my own, my output is not there at the gym.” That’s Tom Aspinall on the Impaulsive podcast, laying it all out. For him, the process isn’t optional, it’s everything! Any serious health trouble doesn’t just slow an athlete down, it messes with their head too. Now, as he heads into his title fight against Jon Jones, fresh health concerns pop up. And honestly, it’s written worry all over the place.

When it comes to illnesses and injuries, they’re nothing new for the British Juggernaut. Remember the Curtis Blaydes fight in 2022? Tom took the first loss of his UFC career when his right knee buckled in just 15 seconds into their heavyweight main event in front of a packed, screaming O2 Arena in London. Then, before the Sergei Pavlovich fight, he dealt with a nasty back spasm. Still, he went out there, fought like a beast, and bagged the interim title anyway.

The Manchester native has looked unstoppable since making his comeback. However, 2025 hasn’t really brought any good news for him so far. Aspinall is still waiting on Jon Jones, hoping to unify the title, and his son battled some tough health issues earlier this year. And now, just as Tom Aspinall announced his return, more health problems popped up again. Sadly, it may knock down the chances of that title unification fight against ‘Bones’.

Tom Aspinall, in his YouTube video, revealed, “This is a bit of an exclusive to the channel because us as professional athletes or fighters for sure; we don’t like to speak about stuff that’s holding us back. Injuries, illnesses, all that kind of stuff. But this year, I have actually been ill. More times than I’ve ever been ill in my life. I got an illness, like a virus, before Christmas. And, basically, I’ve had it on and off since. So you’ll see, in the videos where I’m using the snot thing, the snot T-shirt. I have used that a lot. I’ve probably not rested enough. You can still hear in my voice, I’m a little bit nasally, but I’m right at the very end of it now, finally!”

He added, “I have a couple of courses of antibiotics and stuff like that, but it has made me look in depth, medically, with what’s going on, because I keep picking up viruses. Usually used to get it like once a year, it was just a head cold or whatever, but I’ve been like really ill, bedbound of couple of times. I have had ringworms quite a few times and minor skin infections a couple of times, and these are what you usually get when you’re immune system is low. I’ve had in-depth blood tests, I’ve had a metabolism test, I’ve had a full body scan, just trying to get to the bottom of what’s going on?”

That’s definitely a bit of a kicker for sure! We’re all just waiting for the interim heavyweight champ to step back into the Octagon. Now, with this illness, it’s probably gonna take a good bit of time for him to recover and get fully fit. But hey, Tom Aspinall isn’t all doom and gloom, he’s already dropped an optimistic timeline for when he could recover and jump back into training.

Tom Aspinall reveals timeline for his return to training

Tom Aspinall’s always had that champion mindset where injuries never really slow him down for long. His willpower just keeps pushing him through. Every time he came back from an illness, he actually looked better, sharper. And this time, he’s pretty sure it’s gonna be the same story. Even though there’s no exact timeline set, he sounds confident. The Brit believes once he starts training again, he’ll be ready in just a couple of weeks.

Aspinall continued in his YouTube video, stating, “We finally have some results in, and why that is, and when I stop driving, I’m going to get my piece of paper with the results out on the back. I’m going to show everyone the findings for anyone who’s interested. But, I’m pretty confident that in the next couple of weeks I will start operating at 100% once again, or probably better than that, because I’ve been doing a lot of stuff wrong for quite a long time, and I didn’t even realize that I was doing it wrong till I decided to take these tests.”

Although Tom Aspinall has provided us with a timeline when he’s going to start training, it’s still an expected timeline, and hopefully, everything will turn out well for the English heavyweight. That being said, when do you think he makes the comeback? Please comment below.