'I try to get it out of him' - Johnny Sexton reveals how his son is ...
Johnny Sexton has opened up on his fears that his young son is starting to mirror the intensity that he showed as a child.
The now-retired rugby legend has been on a busy media tour in recent weeks ahead of his autobiography Obsessed hitting the shelves.
The book is quickly proving to be a hit as it frankly tackles the intense and at-times outright angry behaviour of its central figure in his lengthy rugby career.
2023 Rugby World Cup Quarter-Final, Stade de France, Paris, France 14/10/2023 Ireland vs New Zealand Ireland’s Johnny Sexton. Pic: INPHO/Dan SheridanSexton himself has already offered stories such as imaging Ronan O’Gara‘s face on a ball to help him kick better.
Looking back over his childhood, the 39-year-old has now revealed that he was an anxious worrier as a child starting out in rugby – and it is something that his own son is now starting to do.
‘The intensity, I don’t think it was intense like how it was during my rugby playing days, but worrying a lot of things – overthinking would probably be a bit more [accurate],’ he told Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ Radio 1.
‘I see it now in my own young fella now. He is very similar. He tries to make sense of everything and he digs deep on a lot of things as well.
Asked whether he was a fan of this particular behaviour, the former Ireland skipper replied in the negative.
‘No! I try and get it out of him and try and put his made at ease,’ Sexton continued.
‘Again: is it nature or nature? That’s the million dollar question. Is it in you?
‘I would’ve brought him up very different to how I was brought up but it’s still there. So you’d argue, maybe, that it’s just in him.
‘It’s about teaching him – I talk about in the book – I was taught how to deal with these things [through] sport psychologists, you meet other players, you meet various people along the way that influence you massively and they would’ve steered me in the right direction.’
