Republic of Ireland Under-21 captain Shane Duffy has been at the centre of controversy involving a pro-IRA message on Twitter.

A tweet, which read "Up the RA!", appeared on the 21-year-old's account via a retweet, but the Everton defender claimed that he had nothing to do with the post.

Duffy wrote online: "sorry everyone some little paddy had my phone last night tweets wernt me.. sorry if it offended anyone!! cant leave ur phone anywhere now!!

"The retweets and tweets was not me. Got to accept the hate. Really am sorry for this mess! Sorry guys!"

Duffy has over 49,000 followers.