Old ankle injury’s my Achilles heel
GAA Denis says pain hinders tilt at DWTS
The 37-year-old hung up his football boots in 2017 and relishes a challenge – but said the problem is flaring up. He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “I’ve an ankle injury that’s causing me the most issues, I’ve had a couple of operations on it and I injured it back in November right before the dancing so I’ve got aches and pains which is affecting me.” The Dubliner admits the aggression needed on the pitch is a far cry from the passion required on the dancefloor. He added: “I’d have the aggression on a football pitch but I don’t have it when it comes to dancing. I’m trying to bring a bit of that into the dance but it’s difficult because they’re so far apart. “There are a lot of similarities Denis with his Dublin teammates because you have to perform, you’ve got one shot at it, you’ve got to go out and do a dance and you’re going out to win a match.
“But the big difference is when you’re going out on the football pitch you’ve 25 years of experience to fall back on and that’s what you don’t have in the dancing, you’re depending on stuff you’ve just learnt in a week.
“You don’t have that confidence of where you can go into automatic mode or cruise control where you can fall back on, I don’t have with the dancing.”
PAYBACK
With the Dublin GAA team’s support, the dad of two hopes he won’t be hanging up his dancing shoes tonight as he takes on the Paso Doble. He said: “I haven’t checked the lads’ phones but they tell me they’re voting and a few of the lads are sharing on social media so I’ve great support.” Denis, who works as a financial advisor, admits punters on the street are more intrigued by his dancing than his football prowess these days. He added: “The glory of the football you miss it and that was a big thing for me so that’s why I took on this challenge. The people I bump into now say to me, ‘Good luck with the dancing’ there’s no more, ‘Good luck with the football’. It’s a change all right.” DWTS contestant Johnny Ward’s father passed away yesterday after being diagnosed with cancer. John Ward, from Walkinstown in County Dublin, died in his sleep. Actor Johnny said his dad was now “pain free”. He added: “Thank you to everyone for their kind messages at this very difficult time. news@irishmirror.ie