Timeline for Tony Bellew’s recovery might be longer than expected

This could hamper Tony Bellew's plans.

Bellew injured his hand in the heavyweight bout against David Haye at the 02 Arena in London earlier this month. The Liverpudlian said he broke his right hand with a punch, and displayed his noticeably swollen hand during an interview the following day. Bellew, who defeated the heavy favourite Haye when the fight was stopped in the 11th round, told Soccer AM last Saturday that it was this punch to his opponent's shoulder in the second round left him with the injury: The WBC cruiserweight champion said immediately following the fight that he broke his hand with the punch, which went some way to explaining why the 34-year-old appeared to find it difficult to knock the injured Haye down. Haye ruptured his Achilles in the sixth round of the fight, but somehow fought on until the 11th round. Bellew now could be out for five months following the bout, as it has been revealed that the boxer may require surgery. https://twitter.com/SkySportsNewsHQ/status/842014227778940930 Bellew tweeted a photo alongside his surgeon on Wednesday. https://twitter.com/TonyBellew/status/841607734147584001 And his promoter Eddie Hearn said that, if Bellew does require surgery, he won't be able to fight again until at least October. "The concern is they might have to open up his hand and have an operation," Hearn told Sky Sports News HQ.

"He's got to test it out in about three or four weeks. If it's still sore, then they are probably going to have to open the hand up and have some surgery on that. "If that is the case, he will be out for five months, which doesn't affect things too much. If he fights again, I keep telling him he's going to fight again but you never know, probably October, November, December anyway."

https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_UK/status/839854709930397696 Bellew also spoke his injury, saying he has "damaged his hand."

"In there is some kind of tear; you have some sort of capsule over each knuckle and I've split it. "I've also got a fracture in the hand, but when people just say 'you've broken your hand', essentially I have but it is a fracture."

If Bellew does need surgery, he will be able to return to the ring around the same time as the injured Haye, which will inevitably fuel speculation about a rematch between the pair. Catch up with this week's episode of 888sport Football Friday Live