Tyson Fury 'will fight again in early 2017' claims his trainer

Peter Fury, who is also the boxer's uncle, spoke to the Bayloric TV Boxing channel and is quoted in the Daily Mirror saying that his man will not be back before the end of this year, since he is still dealing with the physical and mental health issues which caused him to pull out of an already-rescheduled rematch with Wladimir Klitschko next month.

But the trainer is totally confident that boxing's most controversial champion will be back in the ring before long.

"I don't want to see him set foot in that ring until I see 100 per cent Tyson Fury back mentally and physically - until that, the best place is at home," said Peter Fury.

"It certainly won't be this year, it will probably be early next year. He will be back."

[ORIGINAL REPORT: Tyson Fury 'will never fight again', claims promoter Eddie Hearn - but is he right?]

The trainer went on to rubbish the suggestion, made last week by Anthony Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn, that Fury will never box again, and that he should be stripped of his titles.

"Eddie is now a promoter, a doctor, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, all rolled into one," he said in sarcastic tone. "

And now a Team Fury member as well because he knows Tyson so well.

"You have got to be all of those things rolled into one to make comments like that and for them to be remotely true."

Notwithstanding Fury's words, a report on ESPN claimed that the fighter is yet to update his official health status with at least some of the boxing organisations whose belts he holds - namely the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO.

"Fury has 10 days to provide the WBO with a status update of his medical condition or he risks being stripped of the belt for inactivity," the report reads. "[He] now risks being stripped of at least the WBO belt and perhaps the WBA title also."

ESPN's Dan Rafael also added in his report that the message sent to the Klitschko camp by the Fury camp carried a stark message suggesting lengthy absence:

Multiple sources with knowledge of the correspondence between Fury's camp and Klitschko's camp told ESPN last week that it included a letter from Fury's doctor stating Fury had mental health issues and that there was discussion of him being institutionalized and that he would be 'unavailable for the foreseeable future'."