IAN O'RIORDANtalks to the Dublin wing back, who has had his fair share of injury problems in the past but now seems to be on top of things

“IT’S PREDOMINANTLY my left side,” says Cian O’Sullivan. “That doesn’t mean the right side can’t go either, but most of the time it’s been the left. It stems from an imbalance in my hips, which is difficult to stay on top of, it means keeping all the muscles in your lower back and hips loose and free, and when you’re training hard it’s easy for those to seize up, and get tight.

“I was able to get a good bit of prehab done at the start of this year, and I’m trying to maintain that now, throughout the year. It seems to be doing the job. But it’s something you’re constantly trying to maintain, because it is so frustrating when you tear it, and it rules you of contention for match day. There’s also a danger of a recurrence if you slack off, don’t do your work, and that’s when you slip up, I suppose.”

He might sound like an old man, when he’s not even 25, and in fact in only his third year of senior championship football, but O’Sullivan is also confident his chronic hamstring problems are under control, at least until they begin to perform hamstring replacement surgery.

The Dublin defender, who this summer has been operating at wing back, made a crucial contribution to last year’s All-Ireland success, playing at corner back – even though he only came into the team at the quarter-final stage, when Dublin swept past Tyrone.

“The hamstring has been a continuous kind of problem,” he explains, “from last year, rolling on from the championship into the club championship and into Sigerson and then back again with Dublin. I never really had an opportunity to rest, but last year, in the middle of the championship, I sat out the Leinster campaign, got five or six weeks of good rest, got the gym work done, and that provided the foundation going forward, allowed me to put the problem aside, and I’ve only had one or two minor problems with it since.

“I haven’t had too many setbacks this year, so I seem to be on top of things. That’s the thing, really, you do need to stay on top of them.”

O’Sullivan made his Dublin senior debut in the 2009 Leinster final, played every game in 2010, and while his club form with Kilmacud Crokes also offered a good sign of his potential, it was only last summer, in Dublin’s final three games, he fully revealed just how good he was. He was nominated for an All Star on the back of those three performances alone, and has proved his worth again this year, his settling influence on the Dublin defence evident no matter which line he plays in.

“It’s going well, but the most important thing for me has always been playing, same as every of the 35 players in the squad. Once you get to wear the jersey, whether that’s in goal or wherever, you take that on the day. Given a choice, I do prefer to play a bit more out the field, as anyone would, where you get that bit more ball, can attack a bit as well. So I have enjoyed the last few matches, yeah.”

As a team, however, Dublin have yet to hit the pace of 2011, and O’Sullivan agrees Mayo present arguably the toughest challenge to their All-Ireland defence – and not just because of what happened in the league back in March, when Mayo had Dublin on their knees long before the finish.

“Oh yeah, they annihilated us, wave after wave of attack. It’s hard for any team to move on after a defeat like that. And we definitely had to analyse a lot of things after that game. It showed just how good they are, and we’re definitely not under any illusions coming into this game, we know what they’re capable of doing.

“There’s no denying we haven’t put in the full performances that people expected from us the last couple of games. Defensively, the last day our work-rate was pretty good, but in the forwards we weren’t clicking. We came through the games against Laois and Meath and we have been working very hard the last few weeks to prepare as best we can for this game, but if there isn’t an improvement then Mayo are definitely a team that will put us away.”

Even if Dublin haven’t exactly clicked in 2012, there has been a maturity about their performances, or at least a distinct lack of panic – even in those fragile moments against Wexford, and more recently against Laois.

When asked when he thinks Dublin last actually panicked in a championship match O’Sullivan pauses for thought: “The one that stands out for me was Kerry, 2009. There is probably another one in there. Like Cork, in 2010. We had the winnings of that game probably and let it slip. But against Kerry we conceded 1-3 in the first few minutes and the heads dropped.

“But it only takes one tiny collapse in concentration for that fault. You can’t rest on the fact it’s been good for the last year and a half or so. It’s something you always need to be conscious of, going into the big games.”

It can’t harm O’Sullivan’s concentration levels that he has two fellow Kilmacud players in the Dublin defence, Rory O’Carroll and Kevin Nolan. Indeed, he’s been playing alongside them for years, including when Kilmacud won the 2009 All-Ireland club championship.

“It’s nice,” he says, “but regardless of what club you’re with, lads are extremely familiar with each other, and how they play, and the roles within the team. With Kilmacud it’s an added bonus, when we go back to play with our clubs, we’ve been playing together in these positions for the last number of years.

“We’re looking forward to getting back to the club, too.We are Second Division this year, and the goal is to get back into the First Division.That’s where we want to be, and we’d be disappointed we haven’t contested them last year, and the fact we got relegated was very disappointing.”

On that note, has it been easier to focus on winning back the All-Ireland, than it was winning it in the first place? “Well, last year we also had the pressure of not being in an All-Ireland final in 16 years. But I suppose it’s just not resting on your victory last year. That’s done and dusted. You’re not going to completely forget about it, but we said back in January when we started training that it was a new year, a new season.

“We had a goal last year and we achieved that, now we have a new goal this year, and we want to achieve that again.”