Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi is recovering after undergoing stem-cell treatment on his injured right hand.

The British rock icon recently revealed he had been putting off the major operation for months, relying on medication to numb the pain.

He told The Aquarian Weekly magazine, "I've got to have an operation on my hand, and that's sort of a major thing I need to get done and I've been putting it off now.

"The cartilage is gone from the thumb in my fingering hand. It's been like that now, to be honest, for a year and I've been taking anti-inflammatories and all sorts of stuff to try and calm it down, but it's inevitable I've got to have the operation because the bone is rubbing on the bone."

Iommi went under the knife in September and insists he is well on the road to recovery.

He says, "It's coming on alright actually. I've already had the stem-cell treatment, so I've just got to wait now. It's been six weeks but it's feeling great."