STOURBRIDGE boxer Sam Eggington has been forced to pull out of his debut fight at light-middleweight after picking up an injury in training.

The former European welterweight champ was due to step up to 154lb for the first time on the undercard of Kell Brook’s clash with WBC number seven Sergey Rabchenko in Sheffield on March 3.

However, Eggington picked up a head injury during preparation for the bout that required stitches. It means his ring return will now be put on hold for a couple of months.

He said: "It's frustrating because I was making weight and everything was going really well.

"It's one of those things and hopefully I'll be out by mid-April instead.

"I'm still doing light training but I just can't spar at the moment.

"Training was going really well though and that alone has proved it was definitely the right choice to set up in weight."

The Savage made the call to step up a weight class after his split-decision defeat to Frenchman Mohamed Mimoune in October, when the weight cut proved too much of a burden on fight-night as his European strap was taken away.

The gritty 24-year-old now thinks campaigning at light-middle will bring out even more improvement as he targets more big fights and a world title tilt in 2018.