TONY Borg has reached out to those close to Andrew Selby in a bid to help the hugely talented flyweight fulfil his potential and become a world champion.

Selby, 29, is currently suspended by the British Boxing Board of Control after being involved in an incident with a taxi driver for which he received a community order and fine.

St Joseph’s trainer Borg is confident the Board will allow Selby to resume his career in the ring, with a challenge for the European title in October on the cards.

Selby, who has had a difficult 12 months away from the sport, is now back in the gym and beginning to show Borg he means business in his pursuit of global honours.

But Borg wants to make sure his charge doesn’t get distracted and waste the talent he has demonstrated time and again as both an amateur and professional.

“Andrew’s back in the gym, he’s back on the roads doing his running, and he’s focused,” said Borg.

“If he can stay like that then there’s a journey towards a European title fight, which I’m pretty certain he can win, and then a possible rematch with Cristofer Rosales, who he’s already beaten.

“I’m sure that if he applies himself he can do it. When he’s in the gym and focused he’s just a joy to watch.

“People come in and ask if they can watch him train, even on the bags. The things he can do in that ring are fantastic, but then he goes off the rails.

“If anyone out there is reading this and they’re a so-called friend of Andrew Selby they will say to him, ‘we’re doing this, you do that and we’ll see you tomorrow’.

“You can’t blame them but he gets in with the wrong crowd and sometimes they think they’re being his best friend but they’re not.

“He’s on a long road to a world title and they need to encourage him to stay on that road.

“It would be such a shame for him to retire from boxing not having become a world champion.

“He’s probably the most gifted boxer we’ve ever had.”

Selby revealed last week that he and his older brother Lee, the former IBF world featherweight champion, weren’t speaking to each other.

And Borg is in no doubt it is a situation that needs remedying as soon as possible.

He continued: “We speak to his brother and his dad, and we’ve all got to be confident that Andrew is back where we expect him to be.

“It’s very important for Lee, Andrew and their dad to be speaking because I went through my career without a mother and support like that is massive.

“Andrew and Lee are very close but when Andrew had one or two issues he sort of spat his dummy out and they’re not speaking.

“It’s a shame because Lee and his dad only want the best for Andrew and they know I only want the best for Andrew, so we’ll make a decision between ourselves of what is the best way forward.”

Rosales, beaten comfortably on points by Selby in May, knocked out Irishman Paddy Barnes to become the WBC world champion earlier this month.

“Rosales is champion,” added Borg. “Andrew will get a straight shot at him without any doubt whatsoever, and I’m sure he can beat him.

“But, obviously, he’s had a lot of problems over the last year or so and we want to make sure he’s right.

“We started off with a little sparring session last week and we’ll monitor his sparring over the next two or three weeks.

“I’ll speak to Chris (Sanigar, Selby’s manager) after each session and then I’ll step up the sparring, have a look at him and make a decision from there.

“They’re possibly looking to make the European title fight on a show in Bristol in October.

“Andrew’s training for an October fight, so as long as everything goes well with the Board that’s what he’s planning to do.

“I need to see for myself that Andrew is still there, it’s still the same Andrew.”