A BORN and bred Oxford United star jetted in to inspire budding fellow footballers as part of a half-term soccer school.

Canice Carroll captained the Republic of Ireland under-19 team in Spain on Tuesday before flying back to meet youngsters at the WR Soccer School in Barton.

The U’s rising star chatted with pupils and signed autographs at the three day holiday camp before helping to auction off a replica shirt.

The school, run by Waheed Ramzan, gets 5-12-year-olds involved in playing football to help keep them active and healthy.

Carroll also visited a session in Banbury on Monday.

Mr Ramzan said that after meeting the player, many of the children had gone home and played with Oxford United on their FIFA computer games so they could play with Carroll.

He said: “He was absolutely brilliant with the kids, he was a really positive influence on them and many of them have told me they are going to start supporting their local club after meeting him.

“A lot of them showed up because they knew he was coming.

“He really went out of his way to show his support and talk to all the kids about what they want to do.”

Carroll grew up in the Headington area before signing a professional contract with Oxford United in January 2016.

He was given the club’s ‘young player of the year’ award for the 2016/17 season and has played for the senior team eleven times.

The defender has represented the Republic of Ireland at under-17, under-18 and under-19 levels.

Mr Ramzan added: “He had pretty much just got off the plane from captaining the Republic of Ireland and came straight to us.

“It’s really inspirational for the children to see what he has achieved.

“He grew up in the area and knows Oxford, he went to the same schools they did and could talk about places they know.

“If he can do it, maybe they could to.”

The coach, who was born and bred in Headington started WR with the aim of getting children into playing sports in a safe environment with others of the same age group.

He had become concerned about the growing problem of childhood obesity and felt that parents didn’t want to send their children to the park to play because of fears about it being too dangerous.

Since he set it up the soccer school has helped hundreds of children take their first steps into playing sports.

Last year WR launched a new ‘elite development’ programme for children who had developed their skills beyond the basic lessons and help children break in to the academies of professional clubs.

Mr Ramzan said: “We think that if we can install them with a love of football early on, they will take that with them as they grow up and life a healthy, active lifestyle.

“I went from playing nothing at all to getting involved in loads of other sports like badminton and basketball.”