BRADLEY SAUNDERS has met with specialist hand surgeon Mike Hayton in a bid to save his boxing career.

Sedgefield fighter Saunders made a disastrous comeback from injury at Liverpool Olympia earlier this month as he damaged both of his hands in a defeat to Frenchman Renald Garrido that saw him relinquish his unbeaten professional record.

Saunders, who competed at the Beijing Olympics as an amateur, has been dogged by hand injuries throughout his career, but the latest problems could prove terminal unless they can be successfully addressed to enable him to fight again.

Hayton has already performed two bouts of surgery on Saunders, once to repair the 29-year-old’s left hand in 2012 and then again to rectify problems with his right fist earlier this year.

“I’m seeing the hand specialist Mike Hayton,” confirmed the County Durham super lightweight. “I went straight to the doctors afterwards.

“I’ve ruptured ligaments and the previous bone graft has been moved, so it’s not where it should be any more. My hands are in splints right now – I can’t even pull my boxer shorts up on my own.”

Saunders’ injuries ruined his chances of maintaining his unbeaten record against Garrido, but he hardly covered himself in glory as he was disqualified for blatantly head-butting his opponent in front of referee Steve Grey.

Saunders insists the act was a spontaneous moment of self-preservation, and has apologised for his conduct.

“I want to apologise to everybody for the way it ended,” said the former WBO Inter-Continental champion. “The left hand went in the second round and the right in the fourth. I didn’t want to turn my back or take a knee, so that was my way of keeping him off, in the heat of the moment.

“I’m in there to win, but I got frustrated and couldn’t keep him off. I think he knew my hands were shot, he could sense it.

“Full credit to him, he came to win, but if I hadn’t have broken my hands, I could have done what I did in the first few rounds for the full fight. I didn’t want Danny Vaughan (his trainer) to pull me out, so I didn’t let on that both hands had gone.”