Mayo star Ryan O’Donoghue says his parents gave him “every opportunity under the sun” to become the player that he is today.

Yesterday saw the Belmullet clubman named the PwC GAA/GPA Footballer of the Month for July after having helped Mayo to a first All-Ireland SFC success in 75 long years last Sunday week.

Speaking to GAA.ie after accepting the award, the 28-year-old, who delivered a ‘Man of the Match’ display in the final win over Kerry, said that the support of his father Michael and his mother Brenda has been the biggest influence on his playing career.

“He did push me hard, yeah,” he said. “He was my boxing coach as well, one of them, and he could see that I suppose I had a potential and he wanted to just make sure that I fulfilled it.

“And they just gave me every opportunity under the sun, whether it was Dad working two jobs in 2014 around that time to be able to give me the opportunity to go up and down to Sligo where we didn't get expenses and we actually had to pay a membership to play with them and then obviously diesel and that.

“He did push me hard. There was mornings I was getting up before school and I didn't really want to but we had to if I wanted to win the All-Ireland and I won one, the 33 kilos title, which was great. Dad pushed me a lot and so did my mother as well.

“I pushed back plenty of times, but it's all worth it now.”

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