Niall Horan has described Irish boxer John Joe Nevin as a ‘hero to our country’ after watching him win an Olympic silver medal at the Excel Arena last night.

The One Direction star, who has regularly commented about his homeland’s athletes on his Twitter feed during the Games, took to the social networking site to express his admiration for the 23-year-old, who lost out to Team GB’s Luke Campbell in the bantamweight final.

He said: “@johnJoeNevin olympic silver medalist and world champion,hero to our country!”

The ‘One Thing’ singer, who watched the fight with The Voice of Ireland coach Bressie, then added this morning:

“Goodmorning, great night last night in irish house ! Great t see@johnJoeNevin after the fight! Silver medalist and world champ!”