Robert Whittaker has broken his silence on the staph infection that put him out of action.

Back in July 2017, Whittaker took on Yoel Romero for the interim UFC middleweight title. After five hard-fought rounds, Whittaker captured the gold via unanimous decision. “The Reaper” was promoted to undisputed champion when Georges St-Pierre vacated his title.

Whittaker was set to defend his 185-pound gold against Luke Rockhold in the main event of UFC 221 on Feb. 10. Whittaker was pulled from the card after suffering a staph infection. UFC president Dana White said Whittaker’s condition was serious.

During a recent appearance on Submission Radio, Robert Whittaker explained how his illness got worse:

“Everyone knows I like to fight injured. Half the fights I’ve taken I’ve always been injured. Just before I got ill, I pulled my hamstring. We could work around it and we were doing things to compensate for it, we were working around it, but then I got a really bad infection and the infection and the antibiotics just took it out of me.”

He continued, “I was really struggling to recover and then right at the end of the infection, I got the chickenpox. That’s why I’ve got the scars all over my face. It was an absolute mess. If anyone’s had it, it’s just horrible.”

Whittaker went on to say that he’s eyeing a return soon.

”I’m just focused on recovering. I’m gonna let Yoel and Rockhold punch it out a bit, but things are good and I’m looking for a big return mid-year. So let’s see what happens.”