News broke this afternoon that a member of the Irish Olympic boxing team had failed a drugs test, prompting the IABA to suspend the boxer pending an investigation. The competitor will be allowed to have a B sample tested.
Newstalk understands that the boxer at the centre of the allegations is current European Games Champion 22-year-old Michael O'Reilly from Portlaoise.
Speaking on tonight's Off The Ball, Olympic silver medallist Kenneth Egan expressed his disappointment at the news and lamented the loss of O'Reilly to the team.
"He definitely had a realistic chance of winning a medal," he said. "There's talent coming out of his ears, but his discipline was questionable over the last number of years. This kid could have gone on and won a medal handy enough I'd say.
"It's an awful shock and an awful shame because to hear that news as an athlete must be tormenting. He'll have to come home and face the media, I'm sure he'll want to go home to his family first and gather his thoughts.
"Obviously he will have to face the media. But we don't know what happened yet, or what the doping scandal was or what he was taking."
Responding to speculation that the positive test may have recreational, reported by The Telegraph's Gareth A Davies, he added: "The public shouldn't [feel better] because at the end of the day he's a high performance athlete.
"Even if you have your time off you shouldn't be going down that road. He's trained for an Olympic Games, qualified for an Olympic Games, there's no reason where there should be recreational drugs. That's a no-no even if it isn't a PED."
Looking ahead to the beginning of the events, Egan insisted that the team will remain focused on their objective and do the country proud.
"It's a massive shock for the the team because they go over there together and they train together. This is a strong unit that has gone to Rio, but at the end of the day it's an individual sport.
"They all know that themselves and I'm sure they'll all focus on the job at hand. With David Oliver [Joyce] in first, it'll all be focus on him and all the team will gather around Davey and encourage him."
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