Five-time Irish champion Eric Donovan has confirmed that it was a rib injury that has caused his withdrawal from this year’s Elite National Championships.
The Athy boxer’s preparations were interrupted after bruising his ribs and now Donovan is the latest of a string of high-profile boxers to fail to enter this year’s competition.
Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlan, Joe Ward, David Oliver Joyce and Steven Donnelly will all be missing from the finals, which begin this weekend, and now Donovan admits that injury has prevented him from competing for a sixth national title.
Speaking to RTE Sport, Donovan said: “I sat down with the coach nine weeks out and we decided to go for the senior championships. The plan was to get a couple of club shows, two or three bouts and between 50 or 60 rounds of sparring.
“But three weeks into my training, I got an injury to my ribs, bruised ribs, and I lost three weeks of training as a result of it. I came back with three weeks to go and got a fight in Galway. I won that, which gave me a bit of hope, but last Monday, I got hit on the ribs again in the same spot and it’s very tender so I had to make a decision based on my own welfare.
“If I was in a senior final this weekend, I’d make an exception, I’d go with a broken hand, but this is the start of a campaign, the senior championships. It’s a long three weeks so it’s just not fallen right for me at all.
“I wanted to go in under no pressure and enjoy the senior championships but when you’re nursing an injury, you’re not going to enjoy it. And all you are thinking about is the injury and that takes away from the game-plan.”
And Donovan admitted that he is struggling with the commitment that is needed to compete at this level as a result of losing his funding after he was dropped from the Elite squad.
“I’m not a funded athlete any more,” said Donovan. “I lost my number one spot and as a result, I lost my funding. So in the space of two years, I went from number three in Europe and ranked top ten in the world, and then I went down to number two or number three in Ireland.
“And there wasn’t much support for me, it’s a long story, but I had two controversial decisions in the national championships. When I say controversial, I mean they could have gone either way; one was by one point and the other was a count-back and those results effectively lost my funding.
“We all have bills and we all have to get on in life so I had to think about what I was going to do with my life because one minute I was funded and was training full-time and the next year I am not funded and not training full-time so I had to start thinking about my future.
“I went into third level education and that’s what I have been doing, in my second year of counselling and psychotherapy.”
But the former European bronze medallist has dismissed any talk of hanging up the gloves, but Donovan does accept that he is struggling to completely commit to the sport.
"I’m not thinking of stopping but I can’t operate at the same level, simply because I don’t have the funded or the sponsorship."
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