The 'proof of life' photo released by Mitch McConnell to settle questions about his health is an old image, a senior Republican senator has claimed. 

The 84-year-old posted a photo of himself holding a newspaper and claimed a fall had left him 'briefly unconscious,' ending weeks of silence from his office about his hospitalization and absence from Capitol Hill. 

McConnell sits up in a hospital bed beside his wife, former transportation secretary Elaine Chao, with the front of Sunday's Washington Post sports section.  

But Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said 'sources' had told him the McConnell photo was old, in a Real America's Voice interview on Monday evening. 

'I just heard from some other source that was an older photo, so I really don't know,' he told host Eric Bolling. 

'I haven't talked to Mitch, um, I sincerely wish his family well. I hope he can recover,' Johnson added. 'Listen - it's sad to watch people age, no matter who that person is.'

The photo has sparked rampant speculation online with thousands of posts scrutinizing the image, including claims that the Sunday paper in McConnell's hand is doctored.

The Washington Post published an analysis last night which found that the metadata on the photo - the digital footprint coded into the image - shows that it was indeed taken on Sunday.

An independent digital forensics expert also said that there is no evidence that the image is fake.

Viral posts amplifying claims the McConnell photo was doctored showed a zoomed-in picture of the paper in his hand which showed garbled text in the sports section. 

But others cautioned that AI had been used to zoom in on the photo, and in trying to 'upscale' the image, the technology simply generates random text.

Other zoomed-in pictures of the paper show that its layout appears consistent with Sunday's paper. 

Johnson and McConnell have served together for more than 16 years and often clashed, with Johnson siding with Trump over the former Senate leader. 

Johnson backed off the remarks hours later, posting on X that viewers should 'beware of clickbait' and watch the full interview. He then wished McConnell a full recovery. 

McConnell was admitted to a hospital on the morning of June 14 following a medical emergency at his Washington, DC, home.

Paramedics responded to a report of an unconscious person believed to have suffered a 'cardiac arrest,' with a medic reporting 'CPR in progress' at the address.

The senator was not named on the call, and his office has instead claimed that he had a mild case of pneumonia and had not suffered a stroke or a heart attack.

McConnell said his doctors have told him he cannot return to the Senate floor yet, though he said he is still working with his staff on Kentucky business.

McConnell's statement landed less than 24 hours after the sudden death of Senator Lindsey Graham, 71, and days after Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, publicly pressed for information on his condition. 

Republican leaders are now short of votes on a floor where the margin was already thin, with Graham gone and McConnell absent. 

No timeline has been given for the Kentucky senator's return to Capitol Hill. 

Speculation over McConnell's health intensified after Trump loyalist Laura Loomer claimed an unnamed White House source told her he is 'brain dead' and 'not coming back' to work.