Hosford relishing return to Ireland camp for FIBA World Cup qualifiers

There is a phrase never say never in sport and Kyle Hosford is the latest example in Irish basketball. He followed in the footsteps of his successor as captain, John Carroll earlier this week by performing an international u-turn to join the boys in green once more for a crucial pair of FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 European Pre-Qualifiers this week. 

"It feels great to be back," said Hosford ahead of his first official practice in Fribourg. Obviously, talking to all the lads, you’d miss the buzz of it, so It's nice to get around them and get stuck into things."  

It's been a bit of a whirlwind for the UCC Demons man, who announced his retirement from basketball ahead of the Men's Super League season - only to get the itch for another season with the Cork club in October and when the call came from Ireland head coach Mark Keenan about possibly filling the void at guard for the coming games against Switzerland and Azerbaijan Hosford was only too happy to answer the call.

"Mark rang me and kind of just put out a feeler seeing, you know, how I was and how my body felt. I actually said it to Mark jokingly when I came back (to UCC Demons) in October just before the November series and we were in Dublin playing Templeogue. I said, i’ll be waiting for the call, just as a slagging and then obviously that's how Mark brought it up and how it lead to the whole conversation about coming back this time around. I kind of know where I'm at, like in terms of the team and my age and stuff like this, so when the opportunity came, you know and I was available for it I said, of course I'm going to take it."

Hosford stepped away from international duty in 2022 following a successful career which included a FIBA Small Countries title in 2021, but as time passed by, it became clear there was some unfinished business. 

"You’ll always miss it. You will always, always miss it. Everyone will always tell you that once I step away and to have a chance coming back and obviously when you’re winning at club level, the basketball becomes a lot easier, it's almost as if your body doesn't feel as tired and I think if we were losing games, I’d be feeling a little bit more sorry for myself but at the moment, thankfully, we don't have to feel like that."

Despite being out of the squad for almost three years, a lot of those within the group came through when Hosford was still a part of the side and he is not going to be afraid to be vocal in practice. 

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"I'm going to be going after people, you know what I mean? I want to bring the intensity to training, so that the standard doesn't drop from the last window, so I'm putting some pressure on myself to build it up again. Obviously, like the World Cup is the biggest tournament we're going to be entering, so hopefully we put ourselves in a good position to advance and I will take pride in getting us a step closer towards that."

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You can watch both Ireland's FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 European Pre-Qualifiers against Switzerland on Thursday at 18:30 and Azerbaijan on Sunday at 13:00 on the TG4 Player here, TG4 app or FIBA YouTube Channel.