Cooper and Donaghy to carry on - Walsh

Colm Cooper and Kieran Donaghy will return to the Kerry senior football panel in 2017, Donnchadh Walsh has revealed.

With Aidan O'Mahony calling time on his inter-county career, manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice has been boosted by the news that both Cooper and Donaghy have committed to another season with the Kingdom.

Last month Donaghy admitted Maurice Fitzgerald's appointment to the Kerry backroom team could tempt him to carry on for another year but the 33-year-old is committed to playing with the Tralee Warriors basketball team until March, while Cooper had said that he would wait until after the club championship to make a decision on his future.

Walsh, however, believes they will return to the panel before the championship.

"I'm fairly confident that will be it (retirements). We'll be putting the head down and knowing the numbers we have for the rest of the year," Walsh is quoted as saying in the Irish Examiner.

"They're definitely back as far as I can see. You don't like that uncertainty so it's a good boost."

O'Mahony confirmed his decision to follow Marc Ó Sé into retirement on Monday but Walsh admits he did not contemplate bringing his own Kerry career to a close.

“You just found yourself just planning for football unknown to yourself, so the mind made itself up, that, ‘Yeah, I feel good’. As long as the body feels good, I’ll keep going. That just made my mind up itself, really," he added.

“I made my championship debut in 2008 so I didn’t come in straight off of minors and U21s so maybe I haven’t as much mileage or years playing senior inter-county. I know coming from a physio background, the strength and conditioning side of things and how best to look after my body when I’m not on the field.”

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