Dublin centrefielder Denis Bastick attended yesterday's Toyota promotion in Kilmainham on crutches. It turned out that he had "rolled his ankle" playing with Templeogue-Synge Street at the weekend and that the crutches were essentially precautionary.
Although the injury was to be scanned, Bastick said that he “should be okay. I have been through worse than that. I just had the crutches at home and it’s handy enough having a spare pair just to keep the weight off it.”
He has had a very good year so far, starting regularly and playing a big part in the team’s third successive league victory.
An influential impact sub during the All-Ireland-winning year of 2013 – turning the tide in the Leinster final that year and setting up the crucial second goal in the All-Ireland final as soon as he had taken the field – Bastick’s season last year was dominated by injury.
He admitted that at 33, he was aware that getting back into the team wouldn’t be a formality. “It’s always at the back of your mind. There are fewer and fewer guys at my age doing what I’m doing. On one side, you just have to look at what’s ahead of you. It was very gratifying for me during the National League, getting a lot of game time. I felt that that was good for me. It brought my fitness levels up and sharpness up.
Solid performances
“I put in some solid performances during that so I was completely happy with how that worked out – obviously to win the league title as well, which was good for us.
“But you just have to focus on what’s ahead.”
Despite the controversy caused by the team’s 27-point annihilation of Longford, he says that the team has just assimilated the performance and is concentrating on the semi-final, although they’ll have to wait to find out their opponents after Laois and Kildare drew at the weekend.
Dublin’s landscape last year was dominated by the All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Donegal after a season in which they had been looked on as increasingly certain champions.
He queries whether the shock defeat has undermined morale.
“I don’t know if it dents confidence. But it does bring it back to reality that, on any given day, any team can beat you.
“We’re not world beaters. If we don’t perform, we’re an average side, and we know that and we’ve said that about ourselves.
Favourites “It just brings it back to reality that there are no guarantees. We can be favourites or whatever but that doesn’t mean that you’re going to win an All-Ireland.
“They’re hard to win. And we’ve seen that over the past few years. We have only two of the past few years, so it’s difficult.”
