'Heroic' George Groves waiting to learn severity of shoulder injury after victory over Chris Eubank Jr
The injury has thrown Groves' place in the World Boxing Super Series into doubt.
George Groves' camp and World Boxing Super Series organisers are waiting to learn the extent of the shoulder injury the 29-year-old suffered during his unanimous points victory over Chris Eubank Jr on Saturday (17 February) before making any decision over the date for the final.
Groves suffered a suspected dislocated shoulder during the final round of his tantalising clash with Eubank Jr, who smelt blood but ultimately failed to capitalise as 'The Saint' managed to wrap him up, dodge his wild punches and tick down the clock.
Groves did dish out some punishment himself, catching Eubank Jr flush above his eye in the early rounds to leave a cut that was gaping wide by the end of the bout, but his trainer Shane McGuigan is solely worried about the wellbeing of his fighter ahead of the WBSS final, though he had no urge to throw in the towel during a frenetic final two minutes of the fight.
It's a massive concern for the tournament. George Groves' health is paramount," McGuigan said, per Sky Sports. "He said it felt like that [a dislocated shoulder]. I think it was 50 seconds into the last round.
"There was no towel going in, when you were so far up on points...well he should have been, I thought the scorecards were far too close. He was always going to be able to survive that last two minutes."
Groves is due to fight the winner of Callum Smith or Jurgen Braehmer in the final and will find out who is prospective opponent will be next weekend when the pair face off in Germany, but his injury may hand Eubank Jr, whose need for a trainer was desperately evident at the Manchester Arena, a route back into the series.
Groves went to hospital for scans on his shoulder immediately after securing a points victory, scored 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113 by the three British judges, but WBSS promoter Kale Sauerland is confident the WBA and IBO super middleweight champion will be able to train again very soon and praised Groves for his "heroics" during the final round.
"We have a scope for when the tournament has to be completed; I won't go into details on that now, but we'll wait until Monday," Sauerland said. "We're hopeful. With those sort of injuries, it can be that he can train very, very quickly again if it's just a case of it popping out.
"No one knows if there's any damage until the scans have been analysed by experts.
"The way he boxed and tied him up just with the right hand and stole time was, for me, an heroic ending to the fight."