Conor McGregor, Brian O’Driscoll and Lionel Messi together at last.
Ireland’s greatest ever rugby player went through a well-publicised crisis of confidence in 2008.
Bereft of form and nagged by self-doubt, O’Driscoll sought out the help of sports psychologist [and former Armagh player] Enda McNulty and got his career back on track. Within less than a year, O’Driscoll had won a Grand Slam, helped Leinster to a European Cup and shone on the Lions tour to South Africa.
To speak with O’Driscoll during the latter stages of his career, he would have come across as a guy 100% at ease with himself and his sporting abilities.
However, in an interview with Jarlath Regan for An Irishman Abroad, O’Driscoll revealed the demons never truly go away and, at the same time, marvelled at UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor.
O’Driscoll says any sportsperson who claims they live without doubt ‘is a liar’.
He said, “All sports people, and maybe Lionel Messi is the exception to the rule.”
When Regan suggested McGregor’s outward persona was seemingly bulletproof, O’Driscoll replied:
“I think it’s still early on in Conor McGregor’s career. I don’t know how long a UFC career will go but if you go for 10 or 15 years, as the likes of Messi, Ronan O’Gara or I have done, I think over that period of time it is very very hard to maintain a really high standard of lack of self-doubt.
“It’s different in the fight game where it has to be all bravado and you have to be all front.
“No one knows the true inner thoughts of what Conor McGregor is thinking. Only Conor McGregor does.
“I’d say John Kavanagh his coach, doesn’t even know that. Only Conor knows. And fair play to him if he believes everything that he’s saying.”
We now know what Messi thinks about cold, wet nights at the Britannia Stadium. Someone needs to ask him a Conor McGregor question soon.
‘An Irishman Abroad’ is available on iTunes and Soundcloud and the full O’Driscoll interview will be released on Sunday.
