It was a case of earache and heartache for Gary O’Sullivan again on Saturday night.

The same issue that hampered the Cork middleweight when he fought Billy Joe Saunders in a big bout back in 2013 returned to haunt ‘Spike’ in a World title eliminator with Chris Eubank Jr.

Although the Celtic Warrior Gym fighter wasn’t keen to use it as an excuse coach Pascal Collins revealed post fight that his charge had suffered a perforated ear drum early in the fight.

As a result ‘Spike’s’ balance was off and the scales were tipped in favour of the Matchroom fighter.

In fairness to the coach he indicated it wasn’t the sole reason he pulled the Murphy’s boxing middleweight out after round seven,

Collins felt his charge was a little drained limiting the punchers chance he had and he didn’t want O’Sullivan shipping big punishment if he didn’t have a route to victory.

“It was a good fight starting out,it was anyone’s fight over the first few rounds,” Collins told IFL TV.

“After about four rounds his balance seemed all over the place. I told him to keep his feet on the ground, plant his feet when he is throwing his shots, but for some reason he couldn’t do it.

“He said to me he thought his eardrum was burst so I said we would take it one round at a time see how things go. Chris start piling it on, Spike was still throwing shots, but he looked off balance, he was drained a little bit and Chris looked really strong. There was no point in taking a risk and Spike getting hurt or dropped.

“It doesn’t matter how hard you train sometimes its just not your night. We will have our nights, but there was no point in staying in there to get hurt, live to fight another day!”

Rather than celebrate their man’s victory some of the Eubank Jr following elected to express discontent with the fact an entertaining clash was over. They booed Collins decision, but the experienced Dublin coach remained unfazed.

He was keen to point out O’Sullivan didn’t quit he was pulled out for his own safety.

“Spike didn’t quit. I pulled him out. If people want to blame me blame me I don’t care. I did it to protect him he is my friend not just my fighter and I will take care of him like he is my brother,” he added before suggesting Spike could still achieve big.

“I hear Chris is going to fight Nick Blackwell for the British title so maybe we could still fight Daniel Jacobs for a World title. Who knows.”