Irish footballers Katie McCabe and Ruesha Littlejohn have been enjoying a well-deserved holiday after a busy season.
The couple jetted off to the coastal Italian village of Positano after a long season in the English top-flight as well as their exploits with Ireland.
Ireland captain McCabe and Glasgow native Littlejohn spoke about their relationship publicly for the first time in 2019 in the hope of helping others to come out.
Speaking about their relationship recently, McCabe told RSVP Live: "It's funny because I've got some teammates who are with people that are not in the football world and they love it.
"But me and Ruesha obviously both play professional football with Arsenal and Aston Villa and we both represent the Republic of Ireland, and having that is great."
She added: "If I come home after a tough day at training, or if maybe a game doesn't go our way, she understands to let the dust settle a little bit. I think we've got a really good balance of that, we know when to switch off from the football talk.
"The off-season is great for that, we can go away and chill out and it's your time then as a couple where football doesn't need to be involved - saying that, we do kick a ball about on the beach!
"It's really helpful and I think it's good for my mental health as well to have a person close to me that can understand how I'm feeling in the difficult moments."
The Ireland stars said they were “moved” by the support months after coming out.
McCabe revealed in 2020: “It’s been very moving for us.
“Receiving DMs on Instagram from people you don’t know, telling you their story and that we empowered them to come out, that’s what the campaign was all about.”
Littlejohn, who plays for Aston Villa, added: “There was a range of ages. There were younger people but also older people messaging which was encouraging.
“We’re both comfortable, so we weren’t really scared if there was going to be any backlash to coming out. And there’s actually been zero backlash so that’s even better.”
McCabe previously spoke about life for the couple duirng lockdown.
She said: "I think we've just kind of been bouncing off each other. Obviously Arsenal have been giving me my schedule and West Ham [Littlejohn's club at the time] have been giving Ruesha her schedule so I think we've been kind of integrating our training a little bit and of course then the competitiveness comes out and there's been a few arguments as such but it's good to keep that drive.
"It's good to obviously have each other to keep that competitiveness up cause you'll need it whenever we return to training and games."
Both have been key players in Ireland's thus far successful qualifying effort to make it to the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Ireland's most recent fixture was one of the best results in the history of the women's team as they held world number two Sweden to a 1-1 draw in Gothenburg.
Indeed it was McCabe's deflected effort which put Vera Pauw's side into the lead which they were able to hold onto until the 79th minute when Kosovare Asllani produced a real quality touch and finish to deny The Girls in Green a famous victory.
However, that surprise point could go a long way towards getting us into a play-off to qualify for a first-ever major international tournament.
A crunch clash with our rivals for second place awaits in September at Tallaght stadium as Finland come to town.
Should we avoid defeat there, a win against Slovakia a few days later will ensure Ireland leapfrog Finland going into the home stretch of the campaign.
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