Hull City have moved to quell rumours that their Irish international midfielder Stephen Quinn is in fact a leprechaun.

Speculation mounted that Quinn might be some kind of mischievous, mound-dwelling mythical being when he was spotted last weekend helping Republic of Ireland record a 7-0 win over Gibraltar.

Gossip then gathered apace on Tuesday night when he was seen taking part in an historic 1-1 draw away to world champions Germany, a result that’s already being described as “coupon-busting”.

Quinn’s Ireland team mates appeared to confirm the increasingly widespread suspicion when they tweeted footage of him celebrating the unlikely point by dancing a “teleportation jig”, which involves periodically vanishing into thin air and re-materialising in a different corner of the room.

However, Steve Bruce, his manager at Hull, poured scorn on the very notion of Quinn being a leprechaun during an exclusive chinwag with Football Burp.

He said: “Stephen Quinn’s a nice boy and I’m sure he’d have mentioned it by now if he was [a leprechaun].

“You’re bound to get daft stories like this flying around during the international break when everyone’s bored stupid, so I can understand how word spread so fast.

“He’s almost certainly not a leprechaun, in my opinion – he only spends a couple of hours a day making shoes, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rainbow in Hull.

“Just rain and fish mostly. Not much gold there.”

He added: “Er, except for goldfish.”