Trainer Peter Fury has revealed that British heavyweight Tyson Fury was bed-ridden with a virus in the weeks leading up to his world title eliminator with Dereck Chisora.

Fury scored a 10th-round stoppage win over Chisora to become mandatory challenger for Wladimir Klitschko's WBO title, but his uncle has explained how the 26-year-old didn't train throughout November to ensure that he was fully recovered for the contest at London's ExCel Arena.

Fury told reporters: "Nobody knows that Tyson hadn't trained for the past three and a half weeks coming into this fight.

"Tyson had a virus that put him bed-ridden. He's had flu injections, been up and down to the doctors, I took him to my place and put him in bed for three or four days.

"Last week, he started to feel better and two days before this fight he said, 'listen I feel absolutely okay'. There was talk at one time of pulling this fight but we have to be on death's door to pull a fight."

Fury, who has moved to 23 successive wins, is expected to return to action in February before potentially facing Klitschko during the summer.