ALL being well, this time next week Liam Conroy will be reflecting on a successful return to the ring and on the road to putting himself back into British title contention.

Of course, the fight game in particular has a cruel habit of disrupting plans when everything seems to be going well. Just ask Conroy, who is coming off the back of an enforced eight-month lay-off.

After stopping Miles Shinkwin to retain the English title at the end of the March, the Barrow light-heavyweight has been forced to watch his domestic rivals move ahead of him in the pecking order due to a long-standing injury which was holding him back in training.

It was eventually diagnosed as a hernia by a specialist recommended to Conroy by trainer Johnney Roye and, following minor surgery, the 26-year-old makes his in action on Friday evening in a four-round contest at Manchester’s Victoria Warehouse.

“It was something which kept getting worse in camp and every time I was coming towards a new training camp, I was thinking ‘just drive through now, and after the fight I’ll have a good rest and by the time I start another camp it will be sorted out’,” said Conroy.

“But it just kept getting worse every training camp and it got to the point where after the Shinkwin fight when I decided I wanted to go another step up the ladder, I thought ‘I can’t keep doing this in training camps where I’m not able to certain things’.

“I decided I wasn’t fighting until I got this injury sorted and I just left it, but it wasn’t getting any better and Johnney said to me to go to a specialist. I went and he said it was a classic case of what he called a sports hernia.”

Amazingly, Conroy was back at Roye’s gym in Preston only one week after having the issue fixed and did not take long to resume sparring.

He has been doing some rehabilitation work closer to home too, working with Matty Green at Cumbria Strength & Conditioning in Dalton, and, aside from being a bit heavier, Conroy feels like he has barely been away.

Long-term, the Barrow ABC product has his sights set on challenging the likes of current Lonsdale belt holder Callum Johnson, Joshua Buatsi and Frank Buglioni for domestic honours.

But for now, his focus is on getting through next Friday’s contest and extending his run of nine straight wins – including five consecutive stoppages – which have included claiming Northern Area and WBC Youth honours.

“It’s just about getting this four-rounder done,” said Conroy. “Everything’s been going well in the training camp and I’m not looking past the fight on November 9.

“I just want to make sure I don’t slip up there, but I want to get that one and then plot a way to British titles or around that level.

“The three lads who are above me, they’re the people I want to be mixing it with. That’s where I want to be and I want to be boxing all of them.”