Aidan Walsh has confirmed that he fractured his ankle in his bronze medal winning fight in Tokyo last Friday.
Walsh, 24, was unable to compete in his welterweight semi-final clash with GB's Pat McCormack on Sunday after exhausting all efforts to try and make it, thus handing the Sunderland man a walkover.
Wearing a moon boot, the Belfast man attended the medal ceremony at the Kokugikan Arena tonight after McCormack lost in the gold medal fight against Cuba's Roniel Iglesias.
And Walsh was ecstatic to pick up the Olympic bronze, Ireland's first in the ring in these Games, following in the footsteps of a series of legendary Belfast boxers.
“That was years and years and years of hard work to get there," he said later. "It’s amazing, absolutely amazing.
"I’m just so grateful and feel so lucky to be standing there on that Olympic podium with the other top athletes.
"It’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
For Walsh, there was the high of winning that quarter-final bout against Merven Clair followed by the low of realising his Olympics was over because he had injured his foot while leaping in celebration.
So it has been a roller-coaster few days, culminating with joy as he collected his medal.
"Of course, but if you had told me before I came out here that I would be an Olympic bronze medallist I would have said happy days, and I’m standing here now as an Olympic bronze medallist.
"It’s something that when I first walked into a boxing club that’s what I wanted to be.”
Asked if he would have liked to take Iglesias on for the gold, Walsh replied: “You always want to test yourself against the best.
"But this time it wasn’t meant to be and I’m sure there will be other opportunities to compete against other top competitors in my weight class and I’m looking forward to that."
