Kenny Egan believes Aidan Walsh's Olympics withdrawal will be a "tough pill to swallow".
The Belfast man was forced to pull out of his welterweight semi-final with Team GB's Pat McCormack on Sunday after injuring his ankle celebrating his quarter-final win over Merven Clair of Mauritius.
Walsh will return to Ireland with a bronze medal, but Egan says it will be tough for the 24-year-old to accept that he never got a chance to get back in the ring.
Speaking on RTE, the Olympic silver medallist said: "I don't know what he's going through at the moment after putting himself in a position to win a bronze medal.
"His performance was amazing and to go out like this on a second leap in the ring to celebrate his victory and to be eliminated from the semi-final... it might sink in okay he has a bronze medal which is fantastic but I'd say that's going to eat him up.
"A lapse of concentration and a silly mistake has eliminated him from an Olympic semi-final with the potential of reaching a final.
"The bronze medal is fantastic, don't get me wrong, but when you're in a position to change that into a different colour and it goes out without even fighting - that's a tough pill to swallow.
"He will be on the podium, he'll get a bronze medal which is fantastic, but what happened is not the right way to be going out of an Olympic Games."
