David Haye will be 37-years-old in October, but he still has plenty of big fights ahead of him if he truly wants them.

Motivation is often the point of contention for a lot of boxers as they reach the winter of their careers. Lest we forget Mike Tyson's career-ending battle with Kevin McBride in 2005 when he declared: "I don't have the guts to be in this sport anymore. I'd liked to have continued, but I saw that I was getting beat on. I just don't have this in my heart anymore," freely admitting he fought for the money and money alone.

Haye has never been in danger of falling into that trap. The Bermondsey-born fighter worked his way through the cruiserweight ranks to claim all WBA (Super), WBC and WBO titles at 200lbs before following in the footsteps of Evander Holyfield and making the transition to heavyweight where he also became a word champion.

The Haymaker was 28-years-old when he secured heavyweight gold against Nikolai Valuev back in 2009 and would have two successful title defences (yes, his outing against Audley Harrison counts) before challenging Wladimir Klitschko for the IBF, WBO and IBO straps in the hope of becoming the unified heavyweight champion.

Unfortunately, that is where the injury issues that have plagued Haye’s career since began.

The 31-3 fighter would lose after going the distance with Klitschko and subsequently revealed he suffered a broken little toe during the fight which hampered his punching power. In fact, he also broke his hand trying to knock out Valuev when he won the WBA belt.

Haye would then take out Derek Chisora in a grudge match he was always too good for, but then injuries prevented him from getting into the ring for his next three fights. The first was with Manuel Charr, the latter two were against Tyson Fury.

Who knows what Haye could have done had he remained fit? Fury went on to defeat Klitschko and rule the heavyweight division ever so briefly - though personal demons would orchestrate his temporary demise, not a fighter.

Conversely, Haye wallowed in an unannounced retirement for 18 months before making a comeback. He appeared to be in tremendous shape and he promptly dispatched both Mark de Mori and Arnold Gjergjaj before setting up an all-British showdown with Tony Bellew.

Speaking in the third episode of The Winning Formula, Haye said: "Injury prevention is so important for me as I've got history now of getting injured in training. So, I've had to really be on the ball in terms of making sure everything I do is optimal and I'm fresh and healthy and can recover from it."

Heading into the Bellew bout, Haye looked nothing short of a million bucks. For all his muscles and supreme conditioning, his Achilles would rupture in round five of the contest and ultimately, Bellew would stop him in the 11th round.

Sure, the former two-weight world champ battled on valiantly for six rounds, but his body would still deny him a victory that could have catapulted him back into the title picture.

The two camps are said to be in talks for a rematch now that Haye has returned to training following surgery and the only thing guaranteed if the bout does come to fruition is the meticulous way Haye will prepare his body for it.

Imagine he had been injury-free for the past five years - how different would the landscape of heavyweight boxing be?