Steve Collins was still clinging on to the hope that he could continue his boxing career when he arrived in Dublin yesterday morning. He told reporters he would be returning to London on Monday for a consultation with the neurosurgeon who treated him following his collapse at a sparring session on Monday afternoon. Collins looked pale and seemed somewhat short of his normally cheerful self when he arrived in Dublin. He said that he had experienced unexplained headaches during his resumed training for a non-title fight against a yet-unnamed opponent in Cardiff on June 6th.

These headaches, he felt, were just a passing phase and he took part in a number of sparring sessions last week without difficulty. But he collapsed, face down, in the ring while sparring on Monday afternoon in a London gym and was taken by ambulance to hospital.

There, he was given a brain scan and was detained overnight before being released on Tuesday.

Yesterday he said that his future course in boxing will depend greatly on what he learns when he visits the London neurosurgeon. "I asked him several questions in regard to my condition on Tuesday morning and he was able to answer some of them but not all of them. On Monday I expect that I will get the answers to the other questions and I will then have to make up my mind about my future as far as boxing is concerned.

"The headaches have eased off and that is because I am more relaxed. I have been invited to Sotogrande to play golf for a fortnight and I may take up the offer and it should help." He said that in the meantime aspirin tablets would help.

"When I hear what the neurosurgeon has to say and his advice, I will then have to make up my own mind in regard to the future. The question of being licensed to box by the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC) or the Boxing Union of Ireland (BUI) doesn't arise. If I am cleared by the medical people I will then have to apply for a licence and it will then be up to them.

"I am still under instructions from the medical people and, until they give me the information that I need I cannot make up my mind," he said.