This time last year amateur fighter Daniel Flaherty was preparing for another boxing bout in the ring.

Regular training sessions at Bannockburn Boxing Club were going well and the 25-year-old had the support of his family with his mother even attending despite her stance against the sport.

Nothing could have prepared them for the next days, months and year that they have endured since. Shortly after the fight Daniel took a seizure in the changing area and days later had to have a quarter of his skull removed because of an injury sustained in the ring.

Earlier this month boxing injuries came back under the spotlight after Dundee welterweight Mike Towell collapsed and died after a bout in Glasgow.

Daniel's family now have to think carefully and plan ahead every day with their son who last month had a metal plate fitted in his head to help with his recovery.

The 25-year-old told STV: "I don't know what I'll do next; I could go and help coach in one of the local clubs but I'm still deciding whether to be involved.

"I can't remember anything from the fight or even after. A good two weeks of my life are gone.

"I've had a lot of support all over my Facebook and I'm definitely thankful for the hospital staff. Without it I could have died."

While Daniel admittedly cannot, and will not, go back into the ring, John praised his son's desire to get back to normality as quickly as possible.

His father John said: "Where he goes after this we don't know because obviously we can't say where he'll be in three, six months and how the recovery kicks on from here. The recovery has been great so far so we've just got to hope it keeps going the same way.

"He's showed enough desire to get back as quick as he can and he's turned it right around because obviously at the time they were saying there could have been some sense of brain damage.

"But he's come through, I'm not saying unscathed, but he's been very lucky in the way he's recovered so far."

John added: "One of the effects of the condition is his whole thought process is a bit slow so sometimes if you ask him a question he just kind of struggles to get his head around it.

"After his last operation there his speech improved a bit because he still gets tired and that has an effect on his speech at times. His speech was a wee bit slurry before the plate went in and he didn't have any protection on that side of the brain.

"Anything you do before you could let Daniel do his own thing but now you've got to think about it. In the first little while we were walking behind him up the stairs and that, just taking for granted he was steady on his feet because one wee trip would be bad.

"Previously every time he sneezed he knocked himself out which was a bit of a concern. Another day he fell in his girlfriend's bathroom and banged his head, he went Forth Valley Hospital overnight but thankfully there was no lasting damage."

"All I can say for the last year is that he's done exceptionally well and he's pushed himself."

Mike Towell was the same age as Daniel and both suffered a head injury in the same circumstances. Nick Blackwell has turned 25 since his own fight with Chris Eubank Jnr, which saw the Englishman retire from the sport after being put into an induced coma from the same injury as Daniel and Mike.

John was visited by members of Boxing Scotland who told him that kind of thing had "never happened before". But he knew from his own knowledge of boxing, watching his son, and reading about various incidents from England, America and Australia, that some fighters have not came out as well. "It's a risky game", he admits.

He added: "People have to appreciate what they're getting into before they go and box. I'm not against boxing per se but I'm just saying I think sometimes the authorities and boxing people think it doesn't happen very often when it does.

"The thing is people see Daniel and think he's fine but at the same time he's not, he's a lot better than he could be but he's not fine.

"There's obviously still a wee bit of work to go and obviously that have been a major concern until the plate was put in. There's always the opportunity that if he fell on the wrong bit he can bang his brain and there could have been more damage.

"It's all these kind of things that are going through your head and you just have to keep an eye on him. But hopefully he's through the worst of it."

Daniel's father is now calling for a debate to be held and a consensus reached over how to make boxing safer again across all levels of the sport, both amateur and professional.

In 2013 the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) made the decision to remove head guards from the men's amateur game after extensive medical research suggested it would reduce the number of concussions in the ring.

John said: "They know the risks; you can't have situations where Daniel as an amateur and that kind of thing happens because they're not getting paid along those kind of lines. Even some of the professionals aren't getting paid that much either for the risks they're taking sometimes.

"I'm in contact with certain people to try and get things moving forward to try and get some sort of consensus that we can look at things and see so that some other lads don't have to go through the same pain Daniel, Nick or Mike and their families have gone through.

"What's happened to Mike Towell has hit us quite hard.

"It's never getting away from us what happened to Daniel. What I would say is unfortunately for Mike and his family it's happened to him but it could happen to any boxer to be entirely honest.

"It doesn't matter who you are, even professionals after so many fights. Daniel only had so many amateur fights and it happened to him. It's across the board but I think boxing needs to have a debate.

"It's quite wide with a lot of different areas. I'm not saying I've got any answers but I think probably if people are being honest you don't want anything like what happened to Mike Towell happening again unfortunately."