Marty McGrath admits he knew all year that his intercounty retirement was imminent.

The 2004 All Star announced his retirement from intercounty football yesterday but had signalled his intent much earlier in the season:

"I would have mentioned it the odd time to the players and to Peter [Canavan] that it was possibly my last year," he confirms in The Irish Independent.

"What happened at the start of the year [the death of Brian Og Maguire] made me go back and give it a big push. I wanted one last go."

McGrath's commitment to Fermanagh was epitomised by his bravery in 2008 when he postponed an operation for testicular cancer to play in the concluding stages of the Ulster SFC, including a final and replay against Armagh:

"It was told to me a few days before we played an Ulster semi-final against Derry and I kind of knew it.

"I thought the football was a good distraction for me at the time. The operation was going to collide with an Ulster final but I just thought I would give it all that I had and postponed it.

"Thankfully it has all worked out for me and I am on the right road from it. It's one of those things that when you are young you don't appreciate the severity of it. I put it back a bit but then it was diagnosed early enough." Tweet

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