“There were some dark times, where I thought, ‘maybe I’ve got this wrong, maybe I’ll never be the same again.’ I was literally bed-ridden. I couldn’t do anything. I just sat watching Netflix,” he says.

In order to stave off doubts, Haye decided to see himself almost entirely anew, researching training methods and well-being techniques that might give him an edge when he – eventually – got back in the ring.

“I almost had to summon the same ambition I had as a three-year-old: that my destiny was to be World Heavyweight Champion and I had to do everything I could to get there, so I started to look at what I could do differently.

“I knew how many athletes have had these sorts of injuries and just not come back. When people get injured it’s very easy to get sad, but that lets off these crappy stress hormones in your brain that don’t assist at all in your recovery. Whenever I felt negative I tricked my brain into finding the good things in that situation, using it as a chance to develop.”