Hollywood could do worse than take a page out of born again Hibs hero Rocky Bushiri’s script.

As he was being helped off the pitch, suffering an injury yet still somehow denying Jota on the line with his final act you could almost hear the whisper ‘Careful, he’s a hero’. For Rocky Bushiri has always had a touch of the super-heroic about him, even if it is Nicky Cadden who wears the mask these days.

It’s not just the way he plays, but the way he speaks too. “You work in secret a bit, so you’re ready when you can go again,” he had said about the time  spent out of the squad as the season looked set to pass him by. Lurking in the shadows, analysing from the bench as his teammates tumbled from bad result to bad result.

Nowadays, Bushiri is his club’s own Superman, the beating heart of a Hibs back-three that has gone thirteen games unbeaten, including the victory over Celtic, condemning the league champions to a second consecutive defeat and resulting in one of Scottish football’s finest spectacles, the moment ‘Sunshine on Leith’ blasts out the tannoys surpassed only by the gusto of the fans who made their appreciation known to the players, “a special moment” to cherish as Gray put it.

Yet far from sunshine and rainbows, Rocky’s career could have been the script for the film that carries his name if only Sylvester Stallone hadn’t lived it first, albeit the defender has never had to sell his dog to make it happen. From a young talent on the fast-track to notoriety, Bushiri was breaking records right from the start as he became K.V. Oostende’s youngest ever debutant. The now defunt club’s doors passed through by some familiar faces to fans in the country with none other than Fashion Sakala, Jack Hendry, Ante Palaversa and Ewan Henderson (who spent time with Rocky at Hibs no less) all plying their trade at Oostende at various intervals.

There would be a successful loan with Eupen as he cut his teeth in the professional game, the centre-back’s star rising with appearances at the U21 Euros for Belgium and signing for then Premier League side Norwich City in 2019.

Then, the 6 foot 2 motor stalled. Three years and no appearances for the Canaries. Loan spells didn’t help much either with a move to Blackpool in League 1 yielding just 7 appearances before being cut short. Manager Simon Grayson saying “We thank him for the bits he did for us, it didn’t quite work out that one”, the indifference for a 20 year old who had only recently uprooted from Belgium somewhat striking. Bushiri’s return to Belgium did little to get the engine going, spells at St Truiden, Mecheleh and a return to Eupen led to 21 appearances across three seasons. Not an ideal platform for development in your formative years.

By the time he had joined Jack Ross’ Hibernian on loan in 2022, there remained excitement at the prospect of what the player could bring to a vastly under-perfoming side and whilst game time was forthcoming, the performances fans applaud today were less so. 12 games would bring 11 starts but also 5 yellow cards, including a double against Dundee. The season itself was as chaotic as the managerial changes suggest. Jack Ross (fired), David Gray (caretaker), Shaun Maloney (fired) before a return for caretaker Gray. 0′, 0′, 2′, 90′, 0′ minutes during the split showed just how much Gray believed in the young defender when it came to the crunch.

An ignomonious end to a season but joy of a loan move made permanent was overshadowed by the rumours that the club had forgotten the agreement with Norwich had a clause that forced them to Bushiri after a certain number appearances. Hibs would call it a canard but the rumour was supported by the fact that Bushiri’s name appeared on the list of players set to leave the club at the end of the season.

It didn’t stop there either, Bushiri’s name became entangled once again with a club failing to master the fundamentals of administration. Playing 90 minutes against Morton in the League Cup despite having been suspended, resulting in a 3-0 forfeit and swift exit from the competition. Rocky needed an Adrian, but he was surrounded by Paulies. Injury capped off insult for once as the next season saw Rocky miss 17 games with an ankle injury despite having gone from a player Lee Johnson said “he was probably happy to move on” to one “he wouldn’t sell for £10m”.

Last season looked set to be a breakout season for the player who, whilst not exactly earning acclaim outside the confines of Easter Road, was at least starting consistently. Then came David Gray, and this time no more Mr Interim. This was a manager who hadn’t shown much faith in the defender’s abilities in the past and the signings of Warren O’Hora, Marvin Ekpiteta and Jack Iredale in the summer could have told you that he was didn’t have much of it for the future.

And so it was, Bushiri would sit on the bench for 15 league games, giving his seat the appearance of memory foam, playing just 7 minutes of SPFL football. Hibs were rock bottom of the table, injuries began to bite the side and Gray was forced to bring the by now DR Congo international in from the cold. A 4-1 defeat to Dundee looked to be the last straw for both of them, and then …

Pandemonium.

There’s only one word for a game that made absolutely no sense. A flying Aberdeen side with just one defeat to date arrived in Edinburgh accompanied by a narrative that had been swelling with each passing week and looked set to unfold as expected. The side had conceded the most goals after scoring first had … conceded two goals after scoring first. 2-1 down with added time running out before the result that changed everything, Rocky’s own ‘Rocky’ moment.

90+2 2-2 Cadden goal, 90+5 3-2 Sokler goal, 90+6 that Bushiri goal. When Apollo Creed came to Philadelphia for his world title fight, his chosen opponent pulled out injured. A down and out fighter was plucked to face him with little expectation other than to be a punching bag. We all know how that one went but this Rocky didn’t lose and like his namesake,  he just kept on winning.

Three months on and one defeat in sixteen later, Gray’s switch to a back-three, freeing up the Cadden twins down the flanks with Bushiri at the heart has created a defence that no longer fears defending, it relishes it. If you wanted a montage to sum up his contributions to a campaign once battling relegation now in a European place dogfight, you’d have your pick of the litter. There’s the MotM St Mirren game, the aforementioned Celtic block and Dons goal, the Rangers assist, the Rangers goal or even the late winner against Ayr with a diving header. A moment made all the more powerful by the news of his death from one ‘outlet’. Although reports of his death, it seems, were greatly exaggerated.

Either way Bushiri is a man for the big moments, he always has been. Even when his career looked to be going nowhere fast.

Don’t believe your eyes? Check the numbers. Rocky is in the 89th percentile for players beaten by dribbles (one in case you didn’t want to dig deeper), 90th for shots blocked and 94th for clearances. Yet part of what makes the grandson of the former Congolese ambassador so vital to this side, is what he offers going forward, his pass completion rate stands at 85% and a shot conversion percentage of 29 (Kühn’s is 26, although he does shoot a lot more). Not that you’d need to tell the Hibs fans about his potential to create, they’ve been singing “he’s our Centre Half, turns defence into attack … Rocky Bushiri” for years now.

He’s also got wheels, just ask Toyosi Olusanya who would have been surprised to see a Bushiri in full flight bearing down on him.

All that is to say, the centre-back’s got something, that is not the surprising bit really or the point of writing this. Rather, it is to highlight to emotional intelligence and resilience of a player who’s been forced to watch others kick on as he waited for his break. “Sometimes when you don’t play,” he said of his introspective start to the season “it’s also an opportunity to work on your game, do some different analysis of your game.”

Despite surviving “poking the bear”, as Kieron Bowie put it, to beat Celtic and make it thirteen unbeaten, David Gray and his players know a top half finish is by no means guaranteed despite the run. Gray never missing an opportunity to diffuse his message through the media that the focus is always “trying to catch to team in front of us”.

With Bushiri’s contract expiring at the end of the season, the club would do well do divert some of that focus onto keeping him at the club. The player has been reluctant to be drawn into too much discussion about his future, “you think about because it’s a couple of months away”, he said after the draw in Paisley “when I feel it’s the moment to speak about it, I will.”

Bushiri hails from Duffel in Belgium, known for a woollen cloth once used for army coats and blankets, now synonymous with the British coat, a rather fitting if slightly drawn out parrallel for the player who has kept the Hibernian defence under wraps over the winter.

What a shame it would be for them to think they could without him in the summer.