By Keith Idec
Kell Brook might need reconstructive surgery to repair an injury around an eye after a second straight fight.
The former IBF welterweight champion told Sky Sports News during an interview that aired Sunday morning that he could undergo surgery to repair a fractured orbital bone around his left eye. He suffered the injury during his 11th-round technical knockout loss to American Errol Spence Jr. on Saturday night at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England, Brook’s hometown.
“They kept me in [the hospital] until about 3 a.m.,” Brook said. “I had a CT scan on my eye and the eye [socket] is broken again, same as the Golovkin one, so maybe surgery again.”
The 31-year-old Brook (36-2, 25 KOs) previously underwent surgery in September to fix a broken orbital bone around his right eye. He sustained that injury during his middleweight title fight against Gennady Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs), who stopped Brook in the fifth round of their September 10 bout at O2 Arena in London.
His surgeon, Mohammed Ali, inserted a titanium plate into the right side of Brook’s face to fix that fracture. He assured Brook his right orbital bone would be stronger than ever, and the right side of Brook’s face didn’t pose problems during his loss to Spence (22-0, 19 KOs).
Brook began feeling pain around his left eye in the seventh round Saturday. By the ninth round, the swelling surrounding it was much more noticeable.
In the 10th and 11th rounds, Brook began pawing at the area around his left eye with his glove and moved away from the powerful Spence as much as he could. He took a knee twice – once in the 10th round and once in the 11th – before informing referee Howard Foster that he couldn’t continue because the vision in his left eye was blurry.
“I’m devastated,” Brook said. “I knew from round seven that the eye had gone and progressively [got worse] as the rounds went on. I tried to get through the fight and it kept going double vision, and then coming back into line.”
Brook’s trainer, Dominic Ingle, stopped his fight against Golovkin in the fifth round because he feared Brook would suffer permanent damage to his right eye.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
