MICHAEL CONLAN HAS hinted again that he may turn professional before the Rio Olympics but he’s not going anywhere until he takes care of some unfinished business.

The young Belfast flyweight famously won bronze in London last summer but there’s no guarantee that he’ll be around to lead the next wave of Irish success in 2016.

Conlan, 21, has already said that he would consider following older brother Jamie into the professional game if he wins a hat-trick of major championship medals before then.

He delivered on the first of those promises with a silver at the European Championships in Minsk last month, though he still believes he did enough to beat old nemesis Andrew Selby in the 52kg decider.

Part two will come at the World Championships in Kazakhstan later this year before he possibly turns his attention to the Commonwealth Games next summer.

Before any of that Conlan will have to get back to full fitness. He fractured his right cheekbone during a clash of heads in training last week and though the procedure to set it again was fairly straightforward, doctors say he won’t be able to spar until it fully heals in six to eight weeks.

Fortunately he has time on his side before the real preparations begin for the Worlds in October.

“I’m a third of the way there,” he said yesterday when asked if he is sticking to his medal blueprint. “I just have to go and get a medal in the Worlds now and go to the Commonwealth Games then and get a medal and I could be out of here.

“You never know like, never say never. Professional is always something I want to do. It depends whether I do it now or after Rio.”

World amateur bosses AIBA are already making efforts to stop losing young stars like Conlan to the pro ranks, an talent drain which could seriously damage the prestige of Olympic boxing.

The proposed AIBA Professional Boxing (APB) tournament would allow fighters take a number of “professional-style” bouts each year without losing their amateur status and their Olympic eligibility.

But superstar professionals like Manny Pacquaio and Wladimir Klitschko may also be eligible to enter and could use the tournament as a means to qualify for Rio.

“The way amateur boxing seems to be going, it doesn’t seem to be going the right way,” Conlan said. “With the way APB is going, it’s going to be qualifying for AOB [the Olympics] and it’s a bit weird. We’ll see how it goes over the next two years.

It seems a bit mad because the whole point of it is to protect Olympics and make it stronger yet they’re trying to push people away from the Olympics.

It’s crazy. They’re trying to get Manny Pacquiao, they’ll put the age up for him as well. It’s a bit weird.

Before he thinks seriously about turning pro, Conlan has one other major target: revenge against Selby who has now beaten him three times in the last two years. The Welshman remained top of the flyweight charts in the latest world rankings released this week while Conlan is third.

“The only person I want to fight again is Andrew Selby. I don’t care about fighting anyone else. Hopefully I fight him in the World Championships. If I beat him I’ll be happy.

“I thought I beat him last time. I thought I beat him the first time [at the 2011 World Championships]. I thought it could’ve gone either way the second time [in the World Series of Boxing]. Maybe I lost it, I couldn’t have argued, but the first time and the last time I thought I won.

“He’s probably one of the best skilled fighters I’ve ever fought because he’s so talented and able to do anything. He can switch. You don’t know if he can stand because he doesn’t stand. He’s very, very talented. And he proves why he’s number one every time he enters the ring.”

And though Selby has the voodoo sign over Conlan — for now — there’s no ill will between the two behind the scenes. They’ve shared a lot of the same opponents, shared the same podium, and maybe even shared the same travel agent as Conlan found out when they bumped into each other on a recent holiday.

It’s so hard to hate him because he’s such a nice guy. He is a really nice guy to talk to. I want to hate him because he’s beat me a few times but I can’t because I talk to him and he’s a nice guy.

I even met him over in Magaluf when I was over on holiday and I was talking to him. I was just like ‘Jesus Christ, why did I have to see this guy?’

He added: “He’s not cocky outside the ring. He’s more of a shy person than anything when I seem to talk to him. After we fought there we were up getting drug tested and we were sitting there and I was talking away to him for ages. I just wanted to go up there and hit him but he was just being too nice.”