ONE of Guyana’s leading amateur boxers could be out of the sport for a considerable length of time because of medical reasons. Welterweight Eion Bancroft has been diagnosed with a detached retina in the right eye and needs urgent overseas medical treatment to remedy the situation.

President of the Guyana Boxing Association, Steve Ninvalle, said that the stocky fighter has been forwarded to the Ministry of Health for assistance.

“We have noted the urgency and have turned to the Ministry of Health for assistance. I am pleased to say that the Ministry has responded promptly and is awaiting a few more documents from Mr Bancroft,” Ninvalle disclosed.
Ninvalle said Bancroft had complained of problem with seeing out of the eye. However, it was only earlier this month that diagnosis was made.
The GBA boss added the surgery can be done in Trinidad and may lay up the tenacious fighter for over six months. This rules him out of possible participation of the Pan Am Qualifiers scheduled for Mexico in June.
Bancroft, who fights out of the Guyana Defence Force Gym, is one of three boxers who returned home with victories from French Guiana last month.
He had held the national welterweight title up until last year before being dethroned by Glenroy Smith of the Essequibo Boxing Gym.
He was a gold medallist at the four-nation Goodwill Championship held here in February 2013 and attended the last South American and Commonwealth Games where he gained a place in the quarter-final.