A top boxing medic says the horror ankle injury suffered by Liverpool boxer Robert Davies Jr wasn’t so strange after all. 

Sports and recovery therapist Rob Aspell, who is based in the city, says this was actually no freak injury as initially thought. The fighter’s right ankle was caught under his left leg, and this can often happen in boxing.

The super-lightweight boxer snapped his ankle falling over from a knockout from Irishman Darragh Foley and had to undergo surgery in Aintree hospital.

The Liverpool fan started the fight stronger, catching the Irishman off guard with a right hand hook winning the first round on the judge’s score cards.  

The fight took a turn in Foley’s favour when he floored Davies Junior with a stunning right-hand hook, and this is when his right ankle was caught under his left leg according to Aspell.  

Asked if this was a freak accident, Aspell responded: “No, It’s not an injury that’s going to happen often because if you look at the way he rolls over on his ankle, the second time, that would’ve been strange on its own but the fact when he got knocked down the first time his leg got caught underneath him and that’s what would’ve cause the actual damage in the round or the round after.  

“Boxers tend to have quite strong ankles because of the skipping and road works which tends to strengthen the ligaments and the tendons within the ankle but the way he got knocked down, because his foot got caught underneath him, that’s what put a lot of force through the leg.  

“Even though when his ankle went from underneath him the second time, there was very little through his ankle so that’s what looked strange because not much force went through it and his ankle went but if you take into account the knockdown when his leg got caught underneath him, there was a lot of force that went through the ankle at an angle where he couldn’t take his foot away from him so that’s what caused the damage.”  

Despite the injury, Davies Jr continued with the fight and Aspell believes the 33-year-old the adrenaline flowing through his body would have dulled any pain from the first knockdown, and this would have made the ankle injury worse: “It could’ve done but I don’t know how much pain he was in.  

“When you’ve got the adrenaline flowing and you’re in the fight, he might not have realised himself. 

“You can get through a lot when you’ve got adrenaline flowing, you saw David Haye a few years ago against Tony Bellew.  

“He snapped his Achilles heel but pushed through because he didn’t want to give up, I can’t imagine the pain he must’ve been in.  

“Robert Davies Jr at the weekend, you don’t know how much pain he was in. 

“Put it this way, if he didn’t push through it, it probably wouldn’t have gone like it did and the initial injury wasn’t as bad as the second injury, so he could’ve gotten away with hurting his ankle so much.” 

Davies Jr announced on his twitter account ‘surgery went well’ and he’s now on a road to recovery, hoping to continue boxing in the near future.

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