Cork football secures services of Scottish soccer's lead sports scientist Shayne Murphy

The Rathcormac native is a new addition to John Cleary’s backroom team.

Mon, 15 Dec, 2025 - 13:57

Eoghan Cormican

Highly-regarded sports scientist and performance coach Shayne Murphy has joined John Cleary’s Cork football backroom team in the role of performance director.

Murphy is the second notable addition to Cleary’s backroom ahead of the 2026 season, following fellow Cork native Kevin Murray who was enlisted as a selector during the summer months. The pair specialise in somewhat similar fields, with Murray last year completing a Masters in coaching science.

From Rathcormac, Murphy has been the lead sports scientist for the Scottish men’s national team for the past six years. He was part of their staff for the Euro 2020 and '24 journeys, as well as their very recent World Cup qualification, which will be the country's first appearance in the finals since 1998.

His role with Scotland’s flagship football side centres around delivering practical, evidence-based sport science and S&C provision and insights to inform decision-making.

A central midfielder on a Cork City squad that won the FAI Youth Cup, Murphy knew even at that early age that his path to professional involvement lay elsewhere. He graduated from UL with first-class honours in Sports Science, before adding a Masters in the same field.

As he told Kieran Shannon during an interview for this newspaper in 2021, he emailed 72 English football clubs. He told them he’d gladly clean all their boots and travel just to do his third-year placement with them. Only two bothered to get back to him, Everton and Cardiff City, but Cardiff were willing to take him on.

While he was originally tasked with performance analysis, he created enough leeway for himself to practise a wider range of sports science support.

There was a two-and-a-half-year stint as Blackburn Rovers’ development squad S&C coach, followed shortly after by seven years at Manchester City where he served as sports scientist and S&C coach for both the Man City Academy and U21 side.

When Murphy launched his own consultancy, SDM Performance, late in 2019, Sancho offered a glowing testimonial, proclaiming the Corkman as a “thorough coach” that he’d “highly recommend”.

Phil Foden is another grateful to how Murphy helped him, all the way from when he was just 13 to breaking into Pep Guardiola’s first team. After Foden made his senior debut on a preseason tour of America in the summer of 2017, he signed his jersey and gifted it to Murphy, the sport scientist he’d still commend “to anyone”.

The Cork footballers begin their 2026 campaign with an away McGrath Cup fixture against Tipperary (Templetuohy, 7pm) on Tuesday, January 6. They complete their group with a home game against Limerick on Sunday, January 11 (Páirc Uí Rinn, 2pm).