Injury won’t put brakes on Flynn’s rapid progress
Commonwealth gold medalist may need surgery to remove scar tissue on tendon
HARLIE FLYNN is sitting behind the wheel of a shiny new Volkswagen. Unfortunately for him he might have some trouble steering it just now. The 22-year-old from Newarthill, who reeled off his eighth successive win since joining the professional ranks when he outpointed Abdon Cesar on the Ricky Burns bill at the SSE Hydro on Saturday night, will see a specialist on Monday to determine whether he requires surgery on the hand injury which has dogged him for the past year.
Only an extensive course of physiotherapy, acupuncture and ultrasound, all provided free of charge by Richard Flanagan in Uddingston, got him into the ring on Saturday, and now he waits to hear the extent of the remedial action which will be required to repair a painful piece of scar tissue on the ligaments and tendons near his knuckles. However bad the prognosis, he is confident that it won’t stop him returning to action when Burns defends his world title, likely to be back at the Hydro in September/October time.
“It happened a year ago, so I have had five fights with it now,” Flynn said. “I don’t know if it is the tendon or the ligament, it is the bit that goes right over the top of the knuckle. But about a year ago I was fighting a boy and I hit him on the skull and I felt it immediately, really sore.
“There are two wee hooks there that hold the tendon in place, and the doctor said you will have to get them sewn together again and that will hold it in place,” he added. “So it could be surgery but it might not need it.
“I will see a specialist on Monday – he has done Amir Khan’s hands, he is the main man. While the body has already healed because the tendon doesn’t come off in the same way any more it is all scar tissue, all clogged up.
“If I see him and I need surgery he will get it done in two weeks and I will be back punching in two months’ time. I will be ready for Ricky Burns.”
Flynn hasn’t hogged too many headlines in his professional career to date – he has just one knockout to his name, compared to his Commonwealth Games stable mate Joe Ham’s five. On Saturday there was also the minor indignity of being shunted around as a “live floater” on the Burns bill, stripped and ready for televised action as early as 8.30pm but not making it to the ring until after the Lord Mayor’s show at 11pm when some of the Burns crowd had already departed the building.
“That is just what boxing is like as a sport sometimes,” said Flynn. “You just have to roll with the punches and get on with it. The crowd was still amazing even though it was after the main event, it was brilliant, it was roaring. I just need to bide my time. It is great having the Sky shows back, the big nights, the world titles. The next one that is on in the Hydro I will have a reserved spot.”
In the interim, the offers keep rolling in regardless. Not only have his sponsors at Arnold Clark upgraded him from his white Volkswagen golf to this souped-up blue Scirocco, the 22-year-old revealed that he had been sounded out about whether he would have any interest in appearing as a professional among the amateurs at the Olympics in Rio in the wake of the IOC’s decision to allow them to take part.
Let’s just say he is treating the inquiry with a pinch of salt until something more concrete appears.
“If I got an offer to do it then maybe but I am concentrating on the pros, the amateurs for me is a thing of the past,” said the 2014 Commonwealth gold medalist. “I just said if they came forward with a solid offer then I would think about it, but it is all just talk just now.
“Pros are pros and amateurs are amateurs – this just makes it a free-forall,” said Flynn. “You will get amateurs who will beat the pros in the amateur game and pros who will beat the amateurs in the pro game. You can’t just arrive and say, ‘All right everybody, I am now on the team even though you guys have all been training for the last four years’.”
Flynn, who is not a football follower, points out that his new car is blue – “for Scotland” – but perhaps the most important detail is making sure, unlike his old white one, that he gets his name taken off the side.
“I sometimes go into Asda to get something to eat and one time a voice came over the tannoy: ‘Could Charlie Flynn go to reception or go and attend to your car’.
“You go out there and people are waiting for you for autographs and selfies, hooting the horn and everything. So it is like, ‘I am going to have got get my name aff the side of this thing’.”
Unlike his fellow Commonwealth gold medallist, swimmer Ross Murdoch, who also recently received a swanky new car from Arnold Clark, Flynn has only a passing interest.
“I do like cars, but I am not a mechanic,” he said. “I am not one of those guys who say, ‘I’ve got a four litre or a two cylinder’. I am like, ‘What are you guys talking about?’” Scottish-born Callum Boyd yesterday claimed he had to move to Braehead Clan from Edinburgh Capitals to further his career.
The forward was surprised to get the call from the Clan coach Ryan Finnerty because he didn’t think the club would be interested in him.
“It was a hard decision to leave Edinburgh,” the 22-year-old said. “But I had to think about the next step of my career and what would be best for me.
“I want to progress and get as good as I can and moving to Braehead is the best option.”