Niall Morgan has claimed that some of his Tyrone team-mates are ‘struggling with the financial side of things’.

And the All-Star goalkeeper admitted that if he was starting out again, he’d choose soccer over GAA because of the costs associated with playing inter-county football. Morgan turned down a wage playing with Dungannon Swifts in the Irish League in 2013 in order to pursue his dream of playing for Tyrone.

Speaking at the launch of a GPA-commissioned report which found that inter-county players are out-of-pocket to the tune of €4,602 each year, the players’ body co-chair commented: “I know that now I couldn’t afford to be a student and to play county football when on the other hand I’d got an Irish League wage and, being a number one goalkeeper, I know I’d be able to afford a better life if I was playing soccer.

“I actually have that written down here in my notes for today - if I was to be in the same position, at 20 years of age I think I was when I was asked (to join Tyrone), I think I would be pushing it back at least four years. I’d be saying, ‘You know what, I’ll finish university and then I’ll revisit this’. I know as a student, I wouldn’t have been able to afford this now.

“If it was now, sitting as the 20-year-old, rent in Belfast is now nearly double what I was paying and then food, the costs have gone through the roof.”

The 2021 All-Ireland SFC winner added: “I suppose the big thing I would say too is there are players on our squad, as our player rep, that are genuinely struggling with the financial side of things and students are the most vulnerable within that.

“The cost of living, cars, insurance, rent, everything has gone up for everybody.”

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