Injury Concern For Aidan Walsh ahead of Olympic Semi-Final

Aidan Walsh guaranteed a brilliant bronze for Ireland earlier but came away from his Olympic quarter-final with more than just a medal.

It has emerged that the Belfast welterweight suffered a “slight sprain’ in the aftermath of his sensational win over Mauritian Merven Clair.

When the 4-1 split decision in his favour was announced, an ecstatic Walsh jumped for joy and landed awkwardly on his ankle. While the adrenaline-pumped fighter initially walked off the stumble, he later left the Kokugikan Arena in a wheelchair.

However, the initial prognosis is good and Walsh is still on course to fight Britain’s Pat McCormack in the semi-finals in the early hours of Sunday morning where he will look to upgrade to silver versus his long-time rival.

What winning an Olympic medal means!

Aidan Walsh – bualadh bos 👏🏼👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/gEbvvQyM6H

— Ben Finnegan (@_BenFinnegan) July 30, 2021

Team Ireland confirmed this morning that the Monkstown talent sustained “a slight sprain after his fight today but is looking forward to fighting on Sunday”.

The 23-year-old took an early lead against Clair and did not let up, boxing smart to seal Irish boxing’s seventeenth Olympic medal.

Any impact on mobility, of course, would be detrimental to a classy counter-puncher like Walsh and the sight of a wheelchair will naturally instil fear in some., it is all understood to be precautionary.

McCormack, the gold medal favourite, also has concerns going into the Last Four encounter having suffered a deep cut over his eye during his quarter-final after a clash of heads with Uzbek Bobo-Usmon Baturov