Daniel Dubois out for FIVE MONTHS after battering by Joe Joyce left him with a cracked eye socket

Daniel Dubois is set to be out of action for five months following the brutal defeat by Joe Joyce last weekend.

Dubois suffered a cracked left eye socket and a bleed on the retina during the fight which ended in the 10th round when he was counted out after taking a knee in the heavyweight clash.

The 23-year-old was taken to hospital where he has stayed for further assessments.

According to The Sun, Dubois won’t return to the ring for at least five months as he takes time to recover.

Doctors have also since claimed that Dubois could have lost the sight in his left eye had he continued and sustained further damage. 

A decision over whether Dubois will need surgery will be made once the swelling reduces and a more accurate examination can be made. 

Dubois took a knee in the 10th round after sustaining significant damage and was counted out

Dubois was heavily criticised by some in boxing for taking a knee.

Dillian Whyte called him a ‘coward’ while Chris Eubank Jr was ‘disgusted’ with his actions.  

But Ricardo Mohammed-Ali, the surgeon who twice rescued Kell Brook’s vision by reconstructing fractured bones, said Dubois was right to submit.  

Doctors have since said Dubois was right to submit when he did to avoid permanent damage 

Mohammed-Ali told Sportsmail: ‘As someone who’s fixed a lot of orbits, I’d say that it would be safe to discontinue if there’s a suspicion that there’s a fracture or risk of visual loss. It definitely could be a career-ending injury.

‘If the orbit is fractured and the eye moves back, if they receive more blows… it can actually drop down into the sinus.

‘So further damage to the orbit, making the defect even bigger and harder to reconstruct and restore to some sort of function that a professional athlete would require.’