Bernard Dunne has not given up hope of Dean Gardiner returning to boxing and the IABA's high performance director can empathise with the super heavyweight's decision to step away from the sport.
The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo would normally have been Dunne's first in his Irish Athletic Boxing Association role.
But the Games have been delayed until this summer with continued uncertainty about the feasibility of staging them due to the ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, although Dunne is working on the assumption of events proceeding as planned.
In the meantime, one of the main super heavyweight prospects Gardiner has stepped away from the sport for personal reasons, just four months ahead of the European Olympic qualifiers.
But Dunne said he is leaving the door open for the Clonmel fighter and that he "wants him to know the offer is there" to return if he so wishes.
"Dean hasn't competed yet. Dean wasn't a seeded athlete. That allows us to replace that athlete," said Dunne in regard to the qualifiers.
"It's actually the only weight division where we could have replaced an athlete. Not that you're glad that it's happened but it's the only weight division that we're able to do that in.
"But Dean knows the door is open for him and he knows he can come back. I know what it's like when you step away from a sport and the thoughts that are going through your head when you're doing it.
"Sometimes you realise 'I miss it'. I've told him if that feeling happens that to not be worried about calling or ringing in - just let us know straight away - and we'd have him back."
That experience of dealing with the dilemma of whether or not to return to boxing is one Dunne grappled with in the wake of his 2010 retirement.
It has driven the 40-year-old to become involved with the Indeed Career Coach programme in helping to guide athletes with career plans away from boxing.
"I think a lot of the career coaching comes from a lot of the failings that I would have went through to be honest," he said.
"I got to the end of my career and I actually didn't have a plan. There wasn't a plan in place and I came very close to going back to boxing, going back to fighting.
"That was just through lack of belief and lack of value in myself, not realising that I had other skills that could be used. I thought the only thing I could do, the only thing I valued was being a boxer, whereas there so many other skills that I learned while being involved in sport."
