Ronan O’Gara perfectly sums up what Roy Keane means to the people of Cork

Roy Keane's tale of success is one of pure inspiration, particularly to those in his homeland.

One of the words that gets thrown around a lot when discussion the former Republic of Ireland captain is professionalism. Keano wasn't born with talent, he earned it through being a workhorse. It was this insane work ethic that saw him become one of the best athletes in his field. As Ronan O'Gara explained on SportsJOE Live sponsored by Screwfix.ie, this attitude really hit home to the people of Cork, who put him right up there with there with some of the county's proudest sporting sons.

"Growing up in Cork, he kind of was a hero. Obviously, you had Jimmy Barry-Murphy, Dennis Irwin obviously was someone that was kind of a little bit under the radar, but he was still a God in Cork, you know what I mean?"

https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/844685734938365952 However, Keane was on another level entirely. Not only did he encourage a generation of football fans to better themselves, but his influence extended to other disciplines. O'Gara claimed that even the Irish rugby team drew inspiration from the footballer's success.

"Then Roy was Roy. When you could see what he was doing, it just gave you belief that this could actually happen. You're not born a sportsman. You can work hard to get where you want to go, and I think that's exactly what everyone of our generation of rugby players looked at, saying this guy is made of the real stuff."

He added that getting a chance to speak to Keane was a rarity, because of his own professional career, but the few times he did get a chance to chat with him, he made sure to make it count.

"I think he was too focused with his career, I was too focused with my career. Obviously, you'd love to have discussed more with him, but it wasn't to be because he was living in Manchester and I was living in Cork, but you did get to meet him. The one thing when you did meet him was to make the most of the time you have now, because it's gone like that."

You can watch the fascinating Roy Keane discussion below, from 28 minutes onwards.