Desperate also-ran Whyte's hopes of immediately reviving his title ambitions were scuppered when Povetkin, who produced a knockout of the year contender when he poleaxed his rival in the UK, revealed he was suffering from Covid-19 earlier this month.

Whyte has now scotched reports that Povetkin was in hospital with the virus and insisted that the Russian took "a lot of damage" during their fight, causing the WBC interim title holder's team to offer to provide documentation of his illness.

"I personally don't think he's got Covid," declared Whyte, accusing the veteran of faking his diagnosis.

"I think he just needed more time to get ready because he took a lot of damage in the first fight.

"After the first fight, he took a lot of time off. Even though I got stopped, I went straight back to training and I got straight back on it."

Povetkin's promoter, Andrey Ryabinsky, said he was "ready to submit all the documents" to Eddie Hearn, the organizer of the rematch that had been scheduled to again take place in England on November 21.

"He had a rather difficult form of coronavirus but he passed this crisis period," he told Sky Sports.

"The doctors put him back on his feet. Sasha is now feeling well; no complications have been identified.