Josh Taylor has opened up regarding the foot injury that has enraged him and had seen his time of the ring extended earlier this year. However, that ends on June 10th at the Theater at MSG as he faces Teofimo Lopez in what will be a defence of his WBO world super-lightweight title.
Injury and ring in-activity had seen Taylor lose his undisputed status following his narrow and controversial win over Jack Catterall in February of 2022 due to the delays of Taylor returning to the ring.
Taylor was due to rematch Catterall on several occasions. However, injuries would ultimately defeat Taylor in allowing him to do so. The pair were due to fight earlier this year; however, before an official announcement, Ben Shalom, who would have been co-promoting the event, confirmed that Taylor would not be participating due to a foot injury.
The injury, Taylor, confesses, was a severe one he picked up in January of this year as he began his preparations to face Catterall. Josh was diagnosed with a torn planta fascia which set him back several months. However, Taylor gave an insight into the severity of the injury concerned.
“Yeah, the foot was a pretty bad injury, y’know, back in the end of January, I’d done that. I’d feel thickness, like a tear in the heel of my foot. It was literally hanging on by a thread, it’d been a complete rupture. So it was quite a bad injury, which was quite frustrating at the time because I was just getting ready to announce the other fight with Jack.”
Taylor has split his time between his native Edinburgh and Liverpool after linking up with his new trainer Joe McNally. Josh spoke about how he managed the treatment of the injury he sustained and how he recovered quicker than previously thought while adapting to his new surroundings.
“So, I’ve been down in Liverpool probably since mid-February, coming down here and making sure everything’s right. We’ve actually got quite a speedy recovery because of the treatments I’ve been getting. They’ve been giving me electromagnetic shock therapy.
"The treatment sends shockwaves under your foot and it helps speed up the healing process. That really helped me get back on my feet, back to boxing, and back to being able to do what I want on my feet quicker than I would’ve been able to do so naturally. I got a PRP injection done as well to help speed up recovery as well.”
Ultimately on Saturday, Taylor is fully fit and ready to defend what is his.
