Eamonn Fitzmaurice describes Kerry's lengthy injury list as a 'pain in the backside' but, on the plus side, he says it gives others an opportunity to show what they can do on the inter-county stage.

The All-Ireland winners are facing into their first two league games minus the services of Marc O Se (back), Aidan O'Mahony (ankle surgery), Donnachadh Walsh (groin), Peter Crowley (hamstring), Brian Kelly (ankle), James O'Donoghue (shoulder operation), Anthony Maher (work-tied) and Kieran Donaghy (club-tied).

Colm Cooper, meanwhile, isn't expected to make his eagerly awaited return until mid-March.

"We have been down this road the last two years," Fitzmaurice told The Irish Independent.

"It's a pain in the backside, especially as All-Ireland champions you are going out playing Mayo in your first game in Killarney. Because of the All-Ireland semi-final games they are going to be very anxious to set the score straight.

"From that point of view it's frustrating but the other side is, it's an opportunity for other players and particularly some of the lads that would have progressed a good bit last summer.

"You'd hope competition for places is the key. You look at Brian Cody's model with Kilkenny and that's what he's always done. How can those fellas keep coming back, year in, year out, winning 10 All-Irelands in his 16 years? So it can be done.

"I understand exactly what Bernard Brogan was saying recently (in relation to Dublin post-2011 and 2013), that there can be a slackening of desire.

"But the one thing that always gets players going is if he sees someone else wearing what he regards as his jersey. That can get the juices flowing again.

"If the lads who get that jersey early on perform and try and hold on to that jersey, that's the scenario you want."

That is one of the reasons why Fitzmaurice disagrees with Joe Brolly and his 'indentured slaves' take on the demands being placed on the modern day inter-county players.

"With regard to senior players, this thing about indentured slaves (Joe Brolly's reference), I don't think that's true.

"If you saw the townships in Cape Town, they are indentured slaves - I think with inter-county players, there are a lot of demands placed on them. It is basically professionals in an amateur game. They put a huge amount into it but they love it, they do it because they love it.

"If I have to ring a player to tell him he is not on a squad or not on a team, it's like telling him all is dead belonging to him.

"A joyless existence? I disagree with that completely. I saw an article where Declan O'Sullivan was listed as a fella that had to retire and move on. It was his knees that forced him to retire. He wanted to play on. He would have loved to have gone on and he wanted to stay part of the group.

"Aidan O'Mahony and Marc O Se want to play on because they love it so much so I think maybe in Kerry we're fortunate because the lads have had a bit of success."

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