Author Roddy Doyle has described the experience of working with Roy Keane as “fantastic” and that he was determined to capture the former Ireland captain as “best he could”.

In an interview with Pat Kenny, the acclaimed writer revealed how he was a little uncertain about taking on the task when he was first approached.

“The idea was put to me to work with Roy Keane and I wondered what can I bring to this project?

“When I met him, I said I would try to capture the way he speaks on paper.”

Doyle said that book, entitled The Second Half, looks at “the last few years of Keane’s football career and also on his managerial career ... what went wrong and right”.

The current assistant manager to Ireland was involved in all phases of writing the book, including proof reading each chapter.

“What we would do is sit down for four hour sessions. Once I had a few chapters done, we’d work on an old one and then head into a new one. We’d go through it line-by-line-by-line. It was very much a collaborative effort,” Doyle said.