IRISH defender Shane Duffy has claimed his club asked him to remove a tweet in tribute to the late Martin McGuinness.
Speaking to former footballer Richard Sadlier on the Second Captains podcast, the Brighton & Hove Albion player said he refused the request.
"I would do the same thing again," said Duffy, who, like McGuinness, hails from Derry.
Duffy posted the tweet praising the 'true hero' after learning of the Sinn Féin politician's death in March 2017.
More tragic news this morning, RIP Martin Mc Guinness a true hero for many off us ? god bless your family and close ones #ireland
— Shane Duffy (@shaneduffy) March 21, 2017
He told the podcast: “The club were on my case. ‘Get it down.’
“I was like, ‘It’s up there now’. When you put something up for a second, it’s up there.
“I said, ‘No, it’s my beliefs’.
“The manager was good with me, he was alright.”
The player, who switched from Blackburn to Brighton last August after the Seagulls' promotion to the Premier League, added that he didn’t expect the reaction he got.
Some replies to his tweet branded it ‘disgusting’ and ‘disrespectful’.
In 1984, six people died when the IRA bombed the Grand Brighton Hotel, which was hosting the Conservative Party conference.
Duffy told Second Captains: “I don’t think people know, if you’re not from Derry, obviously people just think automatically that Martin McGuinness is bad but people in Derry know, it’s a lot different to people closer to home.
“I would do the same thing again, it’s just where I’m from.
“I just didn’t think that there would be such a backlash of it.”
