Injury has forced Michael Gomez Jr out of his his scheduled junior lightweight fight with Aqib Fiaz.

The highly charged Manchester derby between Fiaz and Gomez Jr had been due to play a prominent part on the undercard of the welterweight fight between Jack Catterall and Harlem Eubank which takes place at Manchester’s AO Arena on July 5.

“It’s a real shame. It was a fight he was really looking forward to. A great fight that we thought would be the perfect relaunching for him,” Gomez Jnr’s manager, Kev Maree, told The Ring.

“He’s had a hand niggle for a quite a while now. He’s been nursing it through. It’s one of those where you rest a few days and it gets a bit better but after a tough spar it’ll be sore again.

“We sent him to see a hand specialist who works with a lot of our fighters. He said it certainly needs rest and probably an operation. They’re going to look at it in a few weeks to decide whether it needs surgery.

“He’s going to be out for a little while and it’s a real shame.”

The Ring has seen the injury report.

Fiaz (13-1, 2 KOs) will remain on the show and will now fight Salford’s Alex Murphy (13-1) in a 10-round fight at 135lbs.

Fiaz, 25, announced the change with a short, to the point post on instagram:

“@michaelgomezjnr [expletive] his pants again and on 2 weeks notice I’ve accepted a much tougher fight.”

Gomez Jr's withdrawal opens the door for Murphy.

In April, the 24-year-old was handed a slot on the undercard of the heavyweight fight between Joe Joyce and Filip Hrgovic and gave a good account of himself before dropping a hard fought 10-round decision to the undefeated Khalil Majid at junior welterweight.

Although he lost his unbeaten record, Murphy handled his first step up in occasion and opposition well and will pose Fiaz plenty of questions in the Oldhamer’s real test since October 2023 when he was stopped by current British junior lightweight champion, Reece Bellotti, in a Commonwealth title fight.