Mayo's Seamus O’Shea ready for responsibility

The player stand-off which ousted the management team means that Mayo’s footballers will be under even more scrutiny in 2016. It’s a price that Seamus O’Shea and his colleagues are willing to accept

Fri, 29 Jan, 2016 - 00:00

John Fogarty

John Fogarty is the Irish Examiner’s GAA correspondent, with unique insights into the action on the pitch and in the Gaelic games’ corridors of power.

Early Wednesday morning in The Ballsbridge Hotel, and Seamus O’Shea cuts an imposing figure amid the hustle and bustle of the foyer. The son of a Killorglin man who a long time ago proudly dressed his offspring in green and gold, there would have been a time when it meant something to him that the same hotel was part of the venue for Kerry’s post All-Ireland final banquets in 2014 and ’15. But not now. Obviously.

He won’t make Mayo’s trip to Cork on Sunday — a series of soft tissue injuries which have curtailed his training the last two summers means he’s a GRTP (gradual return to play). Given the week he’s had, the extended break has been welcome. His work as an assistant underwriter with IronShore brought him to a conference in London for a couple of days and he only returned to Dublin on Tuesday night.