The 29-year-old featherweight was rushed to hospital in May 2024 with agonising pain caused by a twisted bowel and though it took him some time to recover, he didn’t find the process “hard”.

He told Boxing News magazine: “This is going to sound like a lie but it wasn’t that hard for me.

“I never, ever got down about it.

“I have been boxing my whole life. As soon as that happened, I had 12 weeks where I was just a partner and a dad and that was it.

“I loved every minute of it. We got a camper van, I got my dog, we cut about and seen Scotland.”

And Nathaniel threw himself into getting fit again as soon as he was able to.

He said: “As soon as I was on my feet again, I was running. I’d done ultra marathons, and as soon as I could do that, I was doing 100-mile cycles.

“As soon as I got past that stage of, ‘OK, I’m fit enough now to go back in the gym’, I was back in the gym.”

The boxer now has his sights set on fighting in America.

He said: “The guy I’m always associated with is [WBA champion] Nick Ball and it’s just because it’s an all-UK thing.

“We’ve meant to have been there before. It never happened, it’s been toyed with.

“So, that’s the guy I’m associated with. But if I had to choose, it would be for the WBC title.

“Get myself to America, get a big fight there – that’s the dream.”