THERE IS something of the eternal prodigy about Damien Duff so it seems hard to believe that he is on the cusp of his 100th cap.

If, as expected, the Fulham man plays against Hungary next week and all goes well in the European Championship games against Croatia and Spain, then he will make his 100th appearance on what could be one of those extraordinary evenings on June 18th, when Ireland face Italy.

Yesterday, after a sharp and intense training session in the midday heat of Montecatini, Duff stopped to consider the milestone for a few minutes before escaping to the cool of the air-conditioned bus.

“Eh, people keep reminding me,” he deadpanned when the significance of the date was put to him. “I suppose when you get there and get close to it you want to get there, but I have never really been thinking about it to be honest.

“But yeah, nearing it would be a nice goal and a nice feat to do but points on the board are more important than caps.”

But fingers crossed, Duff will join Shay Given, Robbie Keane, Kevin Kilbane and Steven Staunton in the elite club for a match which will serve as a perfect metaphor for Giovanni Trapattoni’s gilded career. Given the claustrophobia of the group stages, advancing to the quarter-finals could well depend on the result of that match and Duff was understandably quick to redirect the focus to the match rather than personal honour.

“Eh, it is . . . but look I don’t even want to talk about it,” he said reluctantly.

“I want to get points on the board and get through (the group) and I want to do well. That’s all at the minute.”

At training, Duff had been fizzing, all darting runs and sharp flicks in the compact one-touch game which left him wreathed in sweat afterwards. It was an impressively brisk training session, probably designed to fine-tune the collective focus after the free day on Wednesday. Half the squad split for the golf course: Duff elected to board the bus heading to nearby Florence for the day. He nodded when asked if it had been enjoyable. “Yeah, just did a few of the sights of Rome . . .” he said dreamily.

“You went to Rome?” returned a chorus.

“Oh sorry, f**k, I’m day-dreaming here! Yeah we just went there, lunch, dinner and did the sights and came home. A change of scene. It was beautiful. I’m always a fan of going to cities and taking in the sights and I’ll definitely be coming back.”

Thick crowds were lined outside the Galleria degli Uffizi by the time the Irish arrived so they contented themselves with some of the other sights, glad to escape the routine of training camp for the day. “Definitely yeah, good to have a change of scenery and it’s good for the mind, mentally and physically having a day off from training. It was nice. It freshens you up and we enjoyed it,” added Duff.

The break also acted as a natural divide between the heavy mood which followed Tuesday’s announcement that Kevin Foley had not made the final cut for the squad. Floods of sympathy were directed at Foley who headed for the airport and home as the others went on their day-trip. Duff has been around the Irish squad for long enough to have witnessed disappointed faces before but as he points out it was just one of those tough breaks that visit players every so often.

“Listen, that is never nice. It wasn’t nice last week with Keith Fahey and the other day which was unfortunate but that is part and parcel of squads getting picked for major championships. But we all felt for him and there is nothing more you can really say about it,” he said.

The brighter news was that apart from the fact that Stephen Hunt required some attention from the physio at pitch side, the entire squad trained and the niggling injuries are clearing up. Duff himself was in classic mode, exhibiting the quicksilver feints and slick ball control that first earned him the reputation as one of the more delightful wingers in the English game. Duff is 33 now but has changed little in appearance since he first began to light up Saturday afternoons in a Blackburn shirt.

There were no signs of fatigue after the rigours of his 14th full season. “I feel great,” he said brightly. “I feel better as the season has gone on. Thanks to the medical team at Fulham . . . they are unbelievable. I’m feeling younger!”

No bad state of mind with which to prepare for another big championship.

As ever, the Irish go into the tournament as outsiders to make it to the last eight but as someone who has clocked up almost a century of games for Ireland, Duff is well versed in the Irish habit of defying expectation.

“That’s my line of thinking. We have always done well in major championships at senior level, but if you go underage to the Under-20 World Cup in my past experience, that’s my line of thinking and hopefully we can carry on that trend.”