Paul 'Deadly Dossie' Doswell is hoping to deliver two knockout blows in the next couple of days.
Before his Eastleigh side attempt to pack a punch against St Albans City in the FA Trophy at the Sparshatts Stadium tomorrow, he will be donning his boxing gloves at the De Vere Grand Harbour Hotel tonight in aid of charity.
The three-round bout pits Doswell against one of Southampton's best-known businessmen Peter Robertson, whose company, Condor Office Solutions Ltd, are one of Eastleigh FC's main sponsors.
Already Doswell has broken two ribs warming up for the fight, but he is determined to soldier on for an event which has already raised over £20,000 for the Wessex Cancer Trust, Wessex Heartbeat, Leukaemia Busters, Fairbridge and the Hampshire Autistic Society.
Doswell, who has been training at Southampton's Golden Ring Boxing Club, explained: "Peter had been telling me about this charity fight in London and how he'd already collected loads of sponsorship money, then the bloke he was meant to be fighting pulled out at the last minute.
"He knew I liked boxing and asked if I'd fight him if he arranged a night at the De Vere. As he'd just given Eastleigh a sponsorship cheque, I couldn't really say no!"
Since taking on the challenge, the new, slimline Doswell - whose stomach was jokingly known as "the wok" by Eastleigh's director of football Mark Dennis -has shifted over a stone in weight training three times a week.
He said: "I've really enjoyed the training even though I've broken two ribs - one on the right and one on the left. It's taken me four weeks to get over that!"
Doswell is not the only Eastleigh man to have been in the wars. Defender Danny Rofe, who had two operations on a broken left index finger last season, damaged it again in Monday's Hampshire Senior Cup defeat at Havant & Waterlooville and was due to see a specialist this week.
The 29-year-old son of Saints coach, Denis, is ruled out anyway tomorrow by a four-game suspension, but Doswell cannot believe that Eastleigh's season-long injury and illness curse stubbornly refuses to go away.
He said: "I've tried to be upbeat about it but it's getting beyond a joke now. At Havant we had Ryan Ashford being sick at half-time with a virus and Chris Collins, who's a teacher, had been sent home from school with the same thing. We were so short of players that we had to get Danny Woods back again from Wimborne - and even then we could only name two subs."
The bright spot is the imminent return of strike duo Paul Sales and Andy Forbes. Broken leg victim Sales was due to begin his comeback for the reserves last night while Forbes, after two calf muscle ops, is due to play at Bemerton on Wednesday in the Wessex Combination West.
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