Ireland defender Dara O’Shea has credited his upbringing in Gaelic football for helping hone his tenacious defending on the soccer pitch.
Like many Premier League stars before him who hail from this island, O’Shea was a keen Gaelic footballer when he was growing up.
The Dubliner was a regular with St Jude’s in Templeogue, playing both football as well as hurling as a youngster.
Although the centre-half eventually chosen to commit himself to football, some of those old traits still apply to his game.
The 25-year-old definitely thinks that his grounding in Ireland’s national sports has brought out his love for a ‘battle’ out on the pitch in England.
Dara O’Shea on Gaelic football
‘I love the battle most,’ the Ipswich star told the Independent. ‘My mentality as a player is that I just want to win my battle and I don’t want to let them get one better than me.’
‘I’ve had it a lot in recent weeks where we’ve gone a bit man to man and stuff like that
‘I think that is the Gaelic in me coming out; you have your man, you stick to him and that’s that.
‘A huge part of how I play is that front-foot mentality, wanting to get to the ball first, not being afraid to put your body there. It’s definitely helped me.’
Was O’Shea a good Gaelic footballer growing up? The player himself believes so, stating he thought he would’ve been more likely to play for Dublin rather than make it as a professional footballer.
The 32-cap Ireland star continued to play for his club right up until he moved across the Irish Sea to try his luck in England as a 16-year-old.
He added: ‘I played right up to the end, county final,” he says. “If something went wrong, it wouldn’t have been the wisest decision!’
O’Shea is not lacking in Irish influence at his current club Ipswich Town, where he moved to in the summer after his departure from Burnley.
Managed by Fermanagh native Kieran McKenna, fellow Ireland internationals Chiedoize Ogbene, Jack Taylor, and Sammie Szmodics also call Portman Road home.