The ongoing saga of Michael O’Reilly, his appeal against an adverse finding and his ‘B’ sample remains mired in confusion as Irish boxing again backed away without elaborating on precisely what the young middleweight has decided to do. There are many rumours.

The lack of information has thrown the coaches into an invidious position of having to answer questions about doping, when their entire focus should be on the boxers. Through no fault of their own O’Reilly has overshadowed the competition.

Nothing other than a dry statement on August 4th has come from the Irish Athletic Boxing Association.

Following Stephen Donnelly’s unanimous first round win at the Riocentro Pavillion over Algeria’s Zonir Kedaches, Irish coach Zaur Antia pleaded ignorance of the current status of his middleweight.

“Zero tolerance towards doping, as always Ireland has a good resolution to fight against this. We don’t know what happened yet but we will see what happens later,” said the coach from Georgia.

Nor was Antia in a position to clarify when O’Reilly might be back with the Irish squad, from which he was removed, or how long it might take for the issue to be resolved. The 23-year-old is due to take part in his first bout on August 12th.

If it is not resolved by then O’Reilly will have to withdraw from the Olympics. A negative outcome would probably push him into professional boxing. He is currently on the top state grant of €40,000 and that would be lost if he received a ban from the sport.

“Well I see and feel that the situation is excellent,” said Antia. “Boxers are getting ready, everybody has a focus, everybody is engaged by the plan and everybody has his agenda.

“About O’Reilly I can’t say anything at the moment. I don’t know anything about this. All I know, Ireland always has zero tolerance for that issue. I only am focussing to look after the rest.”