Micko not ruling out return to hot seat

MICK O’DWYER has not ruled out returning to inter-county management in 2013 when he will be 77.

The Waterville legend is set to take a year out from inter-county management next season, his first in 14 years and only his fourth since he was appointed Kerry boss in 1974. Though Mickey Moran’s decision to step down from the Leitrim job for health reasons has opened up a position next year, O’Dwyer is not seeking an immediate return to the top level.

“I would have a slight involvement with Waterville at the moment but at the present I’m out,” O’Dwyer told Miriam O’Callaghan on RTÉ Radio One yesterday morning.

“I said I’d take a year off. What’s going to happen next year? That’s another year in the future.

“I’ll be thinking about things when January comes,” he added before admitting he’s addicted to the game. “It’s like a drug. People like drugs and drink and cigarettes, the whole lot, but football to me is a real drug and I just can’t get away from it.”

O’Dwyer added that he stepped down as Kerry manager in 1989 when he realised he would have to retire five of the top players who he knew were “over the hill”.