Fermanagh boss Pete McGrath feels that many players are retiring from the inter-county game too early in their careers.

Speaking to The Irish News, McGrath, who recently welcomed back 35-year-old defender Ryan McCluskey into his panel for the McKenna Cup, acknowledged that the commitment of inter-county players today is at an all-time high due to a "pursuit of excellence".

"If you look at Gaelic Games, even at club level now, every club wants to do well, every club is forward-thinking, every club is putting in place a pretty professional set-up," said the Down man.

"And at county level it's two or three tiers up again. Within sport generally, and particularly in Gaelic Games, there is this pursuit of excellence.

"Players are asking a lot of themselves. Managers and teams are setting high standards and players are asked to buy into it. And after a period of time, given a player's life situation and job situation, the squeeze becomes too much and we're probably getting a lot of players stepping away earlier than maybe 10 or 15 years ago.

"The kind of fall-out from that is you can only give so much for a certain amount of time.

"(But) I think generally too many inter-county player sign off too early in their careers. We're getting this burn-out or fatigue and people are stepping back a shade early."

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