Seamus O'Neill has returned to the Roscommon football squad after a two-year absence.

The powerfully-built Kilbride midfielder, who burst onto the inter-county scene as a 19-year-old with a man of the match display against Galway in the 2001 Connacht SFC semi-final, missed out on last year's stunning provincial success due to work commitments, while an Achilles tendon problem forced him to sit out the 2009 campaign.

O'Neill's decision to return will go some way towards making up for the losses of centre back Cathal Dineen and midfielder Brian Higgins, who have both gone travelling. Dineen is currently in Australia and isn't expected back until the summer at the earliest, while Higgins has moved to New Zealand for work reasons.

Roscommon manager Fergal O'Donnell said: "We have lost two. But then we're lucky in one way that lads that have lost their jobs at home have gotten work in Dublin, so at least they're still in the country.

"We're disappointed with that, but at least they're still in the country. We have a lot of good young lads, but they are all of a similar standard and that showed in the league last year.

"Against Cork in the All-Ireland quarter-final, we didn't have players that would make a difference - they were much the same as what we had." Tweet

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