JOHNNY ARMOUR’S much anticipated return to the ring has been postponed after the Chatham champion picked up an arm injury in training.

Armour, due to make the third defence of his WBU bantamweight title against Nathan Sting at Bethnal Green on Saturday, April 12, has been told to rest for a couple of weeks after trapping a nerve in his tricep.

Armour announced the news after visiting a physiotherapist in London yesterday with his trainer Mark Roe.

He picked up the injury during a sparring session at the Peacock Gym in Canning Town on Thursday.

It comes as a huge blow to Armour who last fought in September 2002 and has been hard in training for the past 10 weeks to take on the former Australian champion.

He said: “I’m absolutely gutted. I’ve done so much work and was looking forward to getting back into the ring.

“I did it a little while ago but I didn’t say anything because it never really bothered me but I threw it out hard in sparring last week and it hurt.

“I've been out of action for seven months, partially due to a broken hand after the last Francis Ampofo fight, so I’m desperate to get in there again.

“But there’s no way I can rest it for two weeks and then go into a world title defence because the final couple of weeks of training before a fight are the hardest.

“No matter how disappointed I am I have to be sensible about it because it’s a massive fight and I hope we can get a new date very soon.”

A spokesman for Armour’s promoter, Barry Hearn’s Matchroom Sport, confirmed the fight had been postponed and said they hoped to have a new date within a couple of weeks.