A HOUSEMATE who stayed with Clinton Woods for 10 days before his disastrous loss to Antonio Tarver is being tested for meningitis.
Company director Darren Ashton, who lodged with the Sheffield boxer in a villa in Florida, became ill just before the fight.
Lacklustre Woods under-performed so markedly against Tarver that his promoter Dennis Hobson told him to undergo tests for a virus.
Meanwhile room-mate Ashton started developing headaches, a sore throat and skin blotches – and was immediately put under observation at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital.
Blood tests have yet to yield a diagnosis, but doctors have not ruled out meningitis or septicaemia.
Meningitis is an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain. Septicaemia is the presence of bacteria in the blood.
Today Ashton, recovering at home in Ridgeway with his family, is on a course of anti-biotics.
The 31-year-old friend of Woods – the pair grew up together in Westfield – said: "I was training and staying with Clinton and began to feel unwell two days before his fight.
"I put it down to jet-lag or burn-out from training. But the skin blotches worried me and the hospital put me on a drip.
"I have no idea whether what I have got Clinton has or had. He is an honest kid and when I told him he just turned it into a joke.
"But he'd said he didn't feel right during the fight. He is having tests himself so we'll see."
Asked whether he thinks the former IBF king will retire, Ashton said: "I hope he comes back, but he has nothing to prove. If he would prefer to spend more time with his family that's fine by us. He'll always be a champion to us."
Promoter Hobson said: "We're not making excuses for the defeat, but clearly we have to establish if there is a health issue involved."
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