I was so close to Mayo return, reveals Mortimer

Former Mayo star Conor Mortimer had hopes of returning to the county squad following his shock withdrawal in 2012.

Mortimer, whose autobiography is launched next week, met with Mayo team liaison officer Noel Howley after quitting the panel before the Connacht final with Sligo.

Mortimer, 32, walked after he was left out of the team for the provincial decider.

But he now regrets a decision which closed the door on his Mayo career.

In an interview with breakinplay.ie, Mortimer revealed: “I don’t feel I made a mistake for what I did but not being able to play football again, that’s the mistake.

“Not for the reasons I did or didn’t do, it was the fact that I couldn’t play again...

“I never retired from Mayo. I left at that time. I never really foresaw that I’d never play again for Mayo. It didn’t cross my mind...”

Mortimer also accepts that a return to the panel under new Mayo joint managers Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly is unlikely.

He said: “I wouldn’t think so, if I’m honest. It’s not for me to decide.”

And Mortimer, the county’s all-time leading scorer at senior level, revealed that he was prepared to return to the county panel after his meeting with Howley in a Dublin hotel.

But the Parnells clubman claims he never heard any more after that meeting.

Mortimer said: “He (Howley) had a chat with me and by the end of the chat I said ‘yeah, I’d meet (James) Horan’ (manager). I was swinging the way to having a chat with him and see what would happen. But I didn’t hear a word after that. That was it.”

Mortimer suspects that Howley initiated the meeting “off his own bat”.

He added: “I met him in the Shelbourne in town and we had dinner and a glass of wine and chatted. I’d known Noel well — I used to travel up and down from Mayo with him.

“He was trying to solve the situation effectively. I went in adamant I wasn’t going back and I came out and I said I’d meet him, tempted to go again and see where it took... but that was it... I never heard anything after that. I had texted him a couple of weeks later saying, ‘what’s the story?’ He said: ‘I’m still working on it.’ I never heard anything.”

Mortimer said his decision to quit was borne out of frustration, insisting his efforts in training weren’t rewarded with championship game time in 2012. Mortimer said: “I played a trial game the week before the first Championship game (against Leitrim). I scored eight or nine points and was sitting on the bench the following week. The guy that played scored a point in the trial game. I know everyone doesn’t get to play but if you’re putting in the work and getting the 50-50 back from the management, fine. But when you’re not, what’s the point?

“I still say to this day, if I had it out here with my club or with any team I played with, even in work, if things aren’t 50-50, what’s the point?”

* Conor Mortimer’s book, entitled ‘One Sunday — A day in the life of the Mayo football team’, will be launched by former Mayo and Galway boss John O’Mahony TD at the McWilliam Park Hotel in Claremorris next Wednesday (Oct 29).