Boxer's career ended after digger accident, WRC hears

Boxer Roy Sheahan, who says his pro career was ended when his left hand was crushed by a digger bucket, claims he was forced to quit his building job three months after going back to work because of the strain of new "heavy" duties on his other hand.

The four-time national amateur champion went professional in 2018, and threw down the gauntlet to Conor McGregor on the back of a 5-0 win streak that year.

The mixed martial arts superstar replied that facing the Athy southpaw would be a "proper fight".

Mr Sheahan told a Workplace Relations Commission constructive dismissal hearing yesterday that his professional career was ended when his left hand was crushed against concrete by a digger bucket in a January 2020 accident, during works on a drain on a building site at Grange Castle in Clondalkin in west Dublin.

"I’d seven pins in my hand, two broken bones, squashed ligaments and tendons both sides," he told the tribunal.

"It stopped my boxing career. That’s all I’d ever done all my life. [In] 2018 I had my sights on going bigger 'til this happened," he said.

The tribunal heard that incident is subject to a separate personal injury claim.

Mr Sheahan has now separately accused his employer of constructive dismissal, with his legal team stating that when he went back to work in September 2020 he had to do so much heavy lifting that he was left with no option except to resign.

The employer denies the claim.

Statutory complaints were lodged against two entities in the same group: Kendra Civil Engineering Ltd and Kendra Plant Hire Ltd.

The respondent maintains Mr Sheahan had been reemployed by the plant hire firm in September 2020, about three months before he resigned on 24 December that year, and therefore has too little service to