JAMIE Moore feared that his dream of fighting for a world title had been wrecked ... by an injury he picked up playing with his baby son on Christmas Day.

But the British light-middleweight champion, who came through one of the fiercest fights of 2006 with Matthew Macklin virtually unscathed, was yesterday relieved to hear that the damage is slight and he can resume training.

Moore was kneeling on the floor of his Worsley home playing with 20-month-old Mikey when he felt the knee give way, and was forced to spend two hours of Christmas Day at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Initial examinations had Moore concerned that the injury might be ligament damage, meaning as much as six months out, destroying his hopes of a world title elimination fight this summer.

But the scan has confirmed that he has either bruised the cartilage or stretched and inflamed ligaments, and will only require a course of physiotherapy.

The injury means the Salford fighter has had to call off a plan for a tune-up fight in Leeds on February 9, but he is now lined up to top the bill at a show in Manchester in March.

"It's a big relief," says Moore, whose wife Colleen is expecting their second child early next month. "I was just kneeling down with Mikey on the floor, and the knee just went.

"The doctors think I probably did the damage in training initially and that it just pinched together when I was kneeling."

Moore had only just resumed training after a shoulder operation to correct a problem that inhibited his punching when he won that epic war with Macklin in September.

He was originally offered a fight on January 20, but had to turn it down because of a lack of preparation time following the surgery.

Shoulder

"They wanted me to top the bill on the British half of the Sky TV programme showing Ricky Hatton's fight in Las Vegas, but I had to turn it down," says Moore.

"But if I rushed into it after the shoulder injury, I could have ended up making things worse. For the sake of a month or two, there is no point in jeopardising your whole career.

"Now the plan is to have a ten-rounder in March and then start looking at a fight with somebody in world-class."

Moore is now hoping that his former arch-rival Michael Jones can pick up the European title when he travels to Italy to face Michele Piccorillo at the end of this month.

Moss Side-based Scouser Jones, who was beaten twice by Moore and won the second of their three fights in a controversial disqualification, has stolen a march on Moore by landing the European title shot.

ENZO Maccarinelli remains confident his cruiserweight clash with domestic rival David Haye will go ahead, dismissing the collapse of the fight last week as "typical boxing politics".

A deal had apparently been agreed for the Welsh WBO king to square off against European champion Haye, from Bermondsey, in Cardiff on April 7.

However a dispute between the camps means the contest is presently off, with no prospect of either side conceding ground.

Maccarinelli, though, believes he will still get his chance to take on the continental champion.

He said: "I'm afraid that's typical boxing politics.

"I did my part of the bargain. I had a deadline of January 7 to sign the contract and I had it signed by January 3.

"But this is the sort of thing you get used to. A lot of politics in boxing.

"I'm sure it will all get sorted out and we'll step into the ring together. When will that be? I don't know. I won't dwell on it if it doesn't happen, but I'd like it to."

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