By Elliot Foster

John O’Donnell has pulled out of his fight this weekend.

The London-based Irishman, who is managed by Steve Goodwin, had been set for a 10-round clash on the undercard of ‘Haye Day’ at the O2 Arena.

O’Donnell (30-2, 11 KOs) was in line to face Colne’s Shayne Singleton (21-1, 7 KOs) on January 16 in a final eliminator for the British welterweight title, which was acting as the chief supporting contest to David Haye’s comeback over 10 rounds against Australia’s Mark de Mori.

But his withdrawal from the show, which is being aired exclusively on free-to-air channel Dave from 9pm on Saturday, was revealed by Singleton’s promoter Steve Wood.

“Unfortunately, we’ve not got good news on Shayne,” Wood told his the VIP Boxing YouTube channel.

“He planned to get on the train and go down to London tomorrow (Thursday) for the weigh-in on Friday and we’ve just had a call to say that O’Donnell has pulled out.

“Where we are at the moment is that they’re struggling to keep him [Singleton] on the show, which is disappointing because he’s sold tickets that have all been purchased through the O2 Arena, they’ve all booked trains and hotels down there because obviously Shayne’s fighting away from home and he’s got the support going down to see him.

“At this moment, I’m in negotiations to try and keep him on the bill,” Wood continued, “and I’m hoping David Haye and his team will be honourable people and keep him on the show, so that’s where we are at the moment.”

Wood went on to say that they were told that O’Donnell sparred yesterday “and he’s turned up in the gym today with the flu, left a note and said that he’s not fighting.”

“It’s unusual that he was sparring so close to the fight,” said Wood, “but apparently he’s turned his phone off, so something smells with that one and it’s certainly not very nice of John O’Donnell to treat his trainer and his team like that and obviously Shayne was looking forward to the fight.

“But he’s sickened at the moment and waiting to see if we can get him on the show.”