James O’Donoghue steps away from Kerry squad ahead of Munster final

The 2014 Footballer of the Year decided to take time out from inter-county football over the weekend

Kerry's James O'Donoghue. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

James O’Donoghue is no longer part of the Kerry senior squad after deciding to take time out from inter-county football over the weekend.

Kerry GAA chairman and senior football team liaison officer Tim Murphy confirmed that O'Donoghue has left the Kerry squad and returned to his club Killarney Legion. 

“To be fair to Peter Keane, this probably happened post-Friday’s media briefing,” during which the Kerry manager had indicated that O'Donoghue was battling for a place in the matchday 26. 

“James indicated that he wanted to take some time out from the Kerry set-up and play some club football to see could he get some form back and see where that would take him. 

“It probably means that he will not be involved if we beat Cork because we have a very short window with everything to be completed within 4/5 weeks if Kerry does go all the way.” 

O'Donoghue lined out for Killarney Legion in the County League on Saturday evening. The All-Star scored the opening goal in a win over Kenmare Shamrocks and finished the game with a total of 1-2, despite only playing for the first half.

O'Donoghue has not been part of the Kerry matchday 26 so far this season and did not feature in the Kerry A v B game which was played on Saturday. 

His last game for Kerry was against Galway in the league back in February 2020 when he scored 0-2 in the opening half before retiring at half-time to be replaced by Tommy Walsh. He also played in the opening league game of 2020 against Dublin when he scored 0-3 before being replaced by Killian Spillane in the 50th minute. 

Mainly due to injury, those are the only 85 minutes of football O'Donoghue has managed to play for Kerry in two seasons.

It now appears the 31-year-old could be close to calling time on his inter-county career. The 2014 Footballer of the Year was part of Kerry’s All-Ireland winning side of that year, has two All-Stars, and eight Munster Championships among the honours won in a glittering inter-county career. 

Murphy also confirmed that Dara Moynihan is rated as extremely doubtful for Sunday's Munster final but Tony Brosnan is fully fit.

Kerry GAA have not yet given up hope of increasing the 2,500 capacity allowed to attend the game against Cork at Fitzgerald Stadium.

“It’s a Munster Council event and Killarney is the venue and they are the body that are organizing the game. I have been on to the Munster Council for the last two weeks looking for an update on where we are at," explained Murphy.

“The Munster Council in turn has been in contact with the Department of Sport and they have arrived at a figure of 2,500. That figure is coming from a stand capacity of roughly 1,000 people which is about 12% of the 8,000 stand capacity. That is consistent with what has been allowed in other venues based on allocating seats with a two-metre gap to conform with social distance. 

“The other 1,500 will be spread out over the terraces in Killarney. The difficulty is with the managing the crowds on the terraces adequately when you don’t have any designated areas for them to sit on. They applied the same logic at Páirc Uí Caoimh on Sunday. 

“I have spent the last three days putting together a submission to increase the capacity based on what I feel is manageable in a safe manner. That submission is being sent to Munster and onto the Department of Sport and hopefully, by Wednesday morning we will know whether our application for an increased capacity will be successful.”