JINXED Joe Hughes has been left cursing his luck once again as an untimely illness has forced him to withdraw from the England under 21 boxing squad.

The frustrated 18-year-old Malmesbury ABA starlet has not had a competitive bout since July, following Wales U19 champion Dougie Price’s withdrawal three days before their scheduled fight last month due to a hand injury.

That fight had even been in doubt beforehand as Hughes, who is hoping to represent Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics, was hit by a shoulder injury.

And the bad luck curse has struck again for Hughes as a month-long chest infection has forced him to pull out of his fight against Ireland’s Jamie Frien at Dublin’s National Stadium on Saturday.

Hughes, who had been looking to cement his place in the England squad after his first call-up earlier this year, said: “I’m absolutely gutted.

“It was bad enough last month because I had been training for that fight for three months, then the kiddie pulled out just three days before.

“Then this time I’ve had to pull out because of a chest and throat infection, which I’ve had for four weeks now.

“I’ve been taking antibiotics from the doctor, which has helped it a bit but hasn’t cleared it up.

“I haven’t been able to train properly because as soon as I do anything energetic I start to get coughing fits. I still wanted to fight but my coaches said to pull out because if I ended up boxing rubbish due to my illness, I might not get picked for England again.”

Hughes fears he may now have to wait until May for his next competitive fight, which would be a frustrating gap of ten months since his last bout. I just can’t wait to fight again, it has been too long,” said Hughes.

“I’ve got the senior ABAs in May, which is my next target. I want to box before that if I can but it’s sometimes hard to get warm-up fights in this area because I’m quite well known.”