I will say this- I’ve been eye poked before, whether sparring or while hooping, and there’s been times when I’ve been blurry in that eye upwards of 30mins after the poke. It’s not painful or anything, it’s just a layer of blurriness that you can’t rub out and it obscures your depth perception badly. And that is a scary way to fight, I don’t care how “tough” you think you are.
Whether or not he was suffering from that we’ll never know, just noting my experience with being poked in the eye as it could also be the same effects he’s dealing with right now.