Professional Rugby 7’s player Greg O’Shea, and Kellie Harrington, one of the country’s top boxers, have joined forces to promote milk and encourage consumers to drink more of it.

The two stars have become the Irish ambassadors for the European Milk Forum’s ‘Everything starts with milk’ campaign, which is now in its second year.

O’Shea and Harrington were announced as ambassadors at a ‘training day’ that took place at University College Dublin (UCD), which saw one boxing club, one rugby team and one hockey team win the chance to train with the two stars, with several members of Ireland’s women’s hockey team also in attendance.

Maintaining a nutritional and well-balanced diet is essential when training to ensure we are performing to our best ability.

“Dairy plays a crucial part in a balanced diet and I am a great supporter of the sporting benefits gained from drinking milk when it comes to hydration and recovery,” O’Shea explained.

He added: “It was great to have the opportunity through the ‘Everything starts with milk’ training day to help educate our next generation of sports stars on why drinking milk is such an important factor in a performance diet.”

Meanwhile, Kellie Harrington said: “I was fortunate to have the opportunity to be involved in the NDC’s [National Dairy Council’s] training day last year, which was such a rewarding experience, so I am delighted to have been named as an official ambassador for the second year of the campaign.

Eating well is essential for boxing, like every sport, and adapting your nutritional intake to your sport is a necessity, so it was great to have the opportunity once again to advise our young sports people on why consuming milk is such a key component in fuelling your body correctly for your sport.

The pan-European campaign – supported locally by O’Shea and Harrington – is being implemented to highlight the importance of milk as an important dietary building block at all stages of life.

The initiate is being managed in Ireland by the NDC.

Jeanne Spillane, marketing manager at the NDC, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Greg and Kellie on board as our ambassadors for this year’s European Milk campaign.

“With Irish athletes currently competing on the world stage, 2020 is a big year for sport and a great time to celebrate our young Irish athletes and their impressive knowledge when it comes to health, fitness and nutrition,” she added.

The NDC will be working alongside O’Shea and Harrington to develop “engaging content, activities, and appearances that will highlight why milk is a great choice post-exercise”.