Dave Fitzgerald has expressed his concern against those who are supposed to care about his son.

The father of Scott Fitzgerald, the current British super-welterweight champion, opened up recently about the battles the 28-year-old has faced outside the ring.

Fitzgerald, from Preston in Lancashire, England, won a gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland and turned professional under the management of Steve Wood, signing a promotional pact with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing.

Last year was the best year as a professional for ‘Mad Man’ Fitzy as he dethroned Ted Cheeseman in Newcastle in October to claim the aforementioned Lonsdale belt – a victory which came seven months after he outpointed his fellow former Team GB man Anthony Fowler, who was also a Commonwealth Games gold medallist in 2014, on a card at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool.

Since beating Cheeseman, it was thought that Fitzgerald would go from strength to strength and he had been set to return to the ring on March 7 at Manchester Arena, exclusively live on Sky Sports and DAZN, but he withdrew from his fight on the undercard of Jono Carroll’s win over Scott Quigg, citing that he wasn’t fit enough.

A year ago, Fitzgerald exclusively revealed to the Lancashire Evening Post that he had an addiction to cocaine, while he recently spent 12 days in Tony Adams’ Sporting Chance Clinic in a bid to knockout his problems with gambling, drugs and alcohol.

And his Dad, Dave, has hit out at those who Scott is influenced by.

“He’s away from all his so-called mates at the moment,” he told the Post. “He’s gone down to London and to be honest, I am not complaining because it’s the best place for him.”

Scott’s first port of call after checking out of the Sporting Chance clinic last Friday was to head to promoter Eddie Hearn's offices in Brentwood for a meeting to map out his future.

He believes he has what it takes to be a world champion within two years – if he can keep his addictions at bay – but his Dad couldn’t be less interested in the boxing side of things.

“In a way I am not bothered about his career, I am more bothered about him as my son,” Fitzgerald senior, who admitted Scott told him he’d been taking drugs since he was 12 years old, continued. “Scott has an addictive personality, but I don’t think his mates want to see him succeed.

“A real mate would say, ‘Scott you have a chance of a lifetime here’. I’m so disappointed that he has got into this and I don’t want him to have to take drugs to be able to function. I want him to be a decent human being.”

Boxing Scene understands that the plan was for Fitzgerald to fight on May 2, on the undercard of Dillian Whyte’s WBC interim heavyweight title defence against Alexander Povetkin at Manchester Arena, before fighting Liverpool’s Fowler in a rematch in the summer.

But the British Boxing Board of Control’s decision to extend its suspension on all boxing tournaments due to the coronavirus pandemic, until at least the end of April, looks to have put paid to that, with Hearn likely to make an announcement on the status of Whyte vs. Povetkin – as well as potentially Oleksandr Usyk vs. Derek Chisora on May 23 at the O2 Arena in London and Anthony Joshua’s June 20 WBA Super, IBF, WBO and IBO world heavyweight title defence against mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – in due course.