Zhilei Zhang and Wilder meet in the 5-v-5 tournament

Joshua is set to return in September at Wembley

Now the American returns on June 1 in Saudi Arabia against Zhilei Zhang in the most unlikely of circumstances.

He has been selected as a member of Hearn’s roster of five fighters that are going up against Frank Warren’s picks.

Meanwhile, Joshua is set to return in September at Wembley in Saudi boxing chief Turki Alalshikh’s first move into the UK.

There is hope it will be against Tyson Fury, but the Gypsy King must first beat Oleksandr Usyk on May 18 while already being contracted to a rematch.

So Wilder would not turn down the chance to at last face AJ should he return to winning ways against Zhang, 40.

His manager Shelly Finkel told SunSport: “It’s speculation but if everything goes OK on June 1 like we hope and expect and that’s brought to us, we’re totally open.”

Fury, 35, and Usyk, 37, meet in the heavyweight division’s first ever four-belt unification next month.

And Fury has distanced himself from a summertime showdown with Joshua, 34, to instead honour a potential October rematch with Usyk.

So it would leave Wilder, 38, primed to slot in for the Wembley war but Finkel admitted the idea has not yet been discussed with Hearn.

He said: “Look, I know why it happened but we didn’t believe that Deontay would lose to Parker, so you can’t get too far ahead of yourself.

“Now we have a big fight in front of us and as long as he does what he’s supposed to, hopefully that’ll be history and then we’ll go forward.

“But no, there hasn’t been any direct conversation.”

Joshua and Hearn for years endured a turbulent relationship with Wilder and Finkel amid repeated failed attempts to get the fight on.

But that was put to bed by the help of the Saudis when they at least had a deal in place before Wilder’s shock loss.

So perhaps it paved the way for Hearn to turn to the former WBC champion when he needed a heavyweight to go up against Warren.

And it could give Wilder the perfect chance to redeem himself at the scene of the crime just seven months on from his last loss.

And Finkel added: “He knows what happened, he knows why it happened. He’s not going to let that happen again.

“Zhang is not someone you can play around with it’s a fight that if you’re going to beat this guy you’ve got to hurt him early and stop him from being too aggressive.”