Conor Meyler believes the demands being placed on inter-county players is at breaking point, despite the introduction of the split season and the suspension of pre-season competitions in 2025.

In an interview with Off The Ball at last weekend’s Irish Open, the Tyrone star said: “I think the inter-county commitment has just gone absolutely through the roof. And the split season, for me, being totally honest, doesn’t really work for a county player because you’re going from playing a full county season of 10-12 games, you go back, and then you’re expected to play a full club season.

“In Tyrone, there’s an even bigger expectation because you go back and play extra league games as well. And then your body is just flogged. You’re being beat up.

"Your cream of the crop, your top players, are just being flogged, and then you are straight into pre-season. So there’s no downtime, no chance to reset before you get back going.

“So hopefully now with the pre-seasons gone, and the GPA brought forward the motion of ‘no contact’ November, which I think is a great idea, I’m friendly with some rugby boys and you see how well managed they are in terms of moving from one team to the next, and taking time off, and prioritising all that."

He added: “I just think that in Gaelic Games sometimes, across all three codes, we just flog players to a point when they break down or they have to retire.”

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