'My relationship with Stephen Kenny got worse when he became Ireland manager' says Seán Maguire

"But could I have wanted things to have been done better on his side? Yeah, 100%," added the Cork City striker.

SEANI'S ON FIRE: Sean Maguire poses for a portrait during a Cork City media conference, at Bishopstown Stadium ahead of the Sports Direct Men's FAI Cup Semi-Final. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.

Seán Maguire insists there is no “bad blood” between himself and Stephen Kenny, although he does feel he was mistreated by his former manager during their time together with the Republic of Ireland.

Maguire’s football career only truly took off once he left Kenny’s Dundalk to join John Caulfield’s Cork City before the start of the 2016 season.

The forward later earned a move to Preston North End before progressing into the Ireland senior side, but the majority of his 11 caps came under Martin O’Neill and Mick McCarthy, under whom he scored his only goal, before Kenny finally took charge.

“I think I probably spoke more to Stephen after the game when we played Pats, when we lost 3-2 than I did when he was Ireland manager,” began Maguire, who is hoping to fire City past Kenny’s St Pats side in Friday’s FAI Cup semi-final at Turner’s Cross.

“Look, there's no bad blood from my side, but could I have wanted things to have been done better on his side? Yeah, 100%.

“But there's no bad blood. If it was any manager for St Pats, I'd be hoping they’d come down and we’d stuff them and get back up the road. They've had a disappointing season anyway, you know what I mean?

“So, Pats will be coming down in their numbers, hopefully we'll get a good crowd and it'll be a really tasty cup tie, one I’m really looking forward to.

Seán Maguire poses for a portrait. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

“I think I proved to him that he shouldn't - not treat me the way he did because it was a good Dundalk team that time - but when I went to Cork for two years, I probably showed him what he was missing.

“He becomes Ireland manager then and I'm thinking maybe this relationship might change a little bit, but things probably got worse.

“I didn't get into one Ireland squad when I thought I was doing quite well at Preston. But it is what it is.

“I was in every squad with Martin, Mick, and then when Stephen came in, he just shut me out sort of thing.

“Where I thought this would be a time to kind of rejuvenate the sort of the relationship…maybe he wanted to bring up the younger players, which they're doing well now the likes of Troy (Parrott) and Adam (Idah) so you can't really go against him like that.

“But he brought me into squads at the time when I was doing well at Preston and didn't even put me on the bench. Stuff like that.

“I’m never going to say no to getting called up by your country, but when you're sat as the 24th man in the stands, sat by yourself over in Bulgaria, it's not nice, especially when it was during covid.

“I'd go back to Preston, and it took me a couple of weeks to get back up to speed. Just things like that.

“I could go on all day about it, but you've probably got a little bit of a taste of it!”