Shane Long recently became a father for a third time after he and his wife, Kayleah Adams, welcomed Jax Anthony into the world.
Jax is the Irish striker’s first son and has brought the Long household up to five. The couple are parents to Teigan and Erin and now have three children under six.
Long flew out to the Czech Republic on Wednesday ahead of tonight’s Europa League clash with Sparta Prague tonight. The 29-year-old was asked by reporters if he was getting much shut-eye and his response was a lovely, and tiring, insight to life as an outnumbered parent. He told Metro:
“We didn’t get him home until [last] Sunday, so I’ve only had two or three days with him. It is amazing. It is a madhouse now with three kids under six but I’m loving every minute.
“My wife knows I have to get up and train so I do the morning feed when I wake up but she looks after him in the night. For the first [morning feed] I was all over the place but by now I like to consider myself an expert. I’m up anyway, I get up early and I’m up with the girls, so it is nice to have another face to look after.”
After that 7am start, feed and breakfast all round, Long is away to Staplewood – Southampton’s training ground – until 3pm most days before he is free to head home and pitch in with the nappy-changing and the myriad of other tasks on hand.
Long became a father for the first time in 2010, at the age of 23, and attests that parenthood settled him down somewhat.
Long and his Southampton teammates should wrap up their progression to the Europa League knock-out stages with an away win in Prague.
Dick Clerkin makes his GAA Hour debut to talk about a wonderful career and argue passionately with Colm Parkinson over Sky Sports GAA. Subscribe here on iTunes.
