Seamus Coleman is a battler on the football field - and that's just in soccer.

He was also well able to hold his own on the Gaelic football field as a teenager in his native Donegal.

Off The Ball's new co-presenter Kevin Kilbane relayed a story told to him by a Donegal man who not only failed to bully Coleman out of the game but also had to reckon with his mother.

"Paul Gallagher, the Donegal man who runs the pub over where I was living in Manchester, he played Gaelic football against Seamus Coleman. He says Seamus was 17 and he said 'I was trying to bully him, trying to give him a few clips, a few elbows, a few digs, maybe the odd bit of taunting as well... bad language'.

"He said 'the one thing about Seamus, I couldn't catch him. There was no way I was going to live with him for pace so I was just trying to take him out early'.

"Paul's a big lad, fit enough and he said 'Seamus just took everything in his stride and he continued to go back and want more from him as well'. And then after the game, his Mum had a pop at him for going for her Seamus."