JOE Hughes was left cursing his luck after injury robbed of him of crunch showdown with Paul Archer last week.

The 22-year-old light-welterweight was due to take on unbeaten Archer on the undercard of David Price’s British and Commonwealth heavyweight title defence against Matt Skelton in Liverpool last Friday night.

But a recurrence of a wrist injury saw the Malmesbury man pull out earlier in the week.

In October 2011, Hughes tore cartilage in his left wrist in training before waiting four months to make his ring return and his fight career suffered another setback as that wrist problem reared its head once again last week.

“My wrist flared up again and I couldn’t really punch properly with my left hand,’’ said Hughes.

“I’ve also got a bit of a problem with me knee so my coach (Andy O’Kane) decided to pull me out.

“It’s frustrating really because it would have been a good one but now being able to punch properly isn’t exactly great for a fight.

“When I originally hurt my wrist, I was out for months but hopefully it shouldn’t take that long this time around.

“I can’t really run or punch at the moment though, so I’m doing some swimming at the moment.

“It’s really hard but there’s nothing that you can do when this happens.”