I'm on team Mick

Corkman Éanna backs manager in Saipan row despite playing Roy in World Cup movie

- BY MARC BAKER

CAPTAIN Roy Keane's bust-up with Ireland manager Mick McCarthy ahead of the 2002 World Cup is the stuff of legend, so Eanna Hardwicke knew he had big football boots to fill.

The Normal People actor, currently playing Keane in a film about the infamous Saipan incident, says playing the hotheaded hardman petrified him.

Éanna, 29, says he was a huge fan of fellow Corkman Keane before the film “and more so after the movie”.

But although he got to play the story from Keane's point of view, Éanna admits he comes down on McCarthy's side of the row.

"I think because of the soul of the movie, I am more of Mick’s persuasion," he says. “It is not a head-to-head of ideologies. It was about two very different approaches to the game and to life.

"I have always had more sympathy for people who have that holistic approach and see the picture a bit broader, like Mick does.”

Éanna added of his preparation: "Roy's side of this story is so well documented — it was pretty much live-streamed as the row happened. He gave interviews and then wrote two books on it all.

"I felt I had enough to go on so my preparation was absorbing everything.

"I locked myself in my bedroom. It was my brother's attic at the time and I ended up talking to myself for four weeks. But at some point you have to forget the public person and their persona.

"The script was great and showed the private side to Roy you never see in the sporting arena.