DUAL STAR CONOR McHugh wants to give it another go with the Dublin hurlers in 2026, provided his body holds up.

The Na Fianna ace won four All-Ireland SFC medals during Dublin’s golden era before making an unlikely debut for the county’s senior hurling team last March, just shy of his 31st birthday.

It followed a thrilling winter with the Na Fianna hurlers whom McHugh helped to All-Ireland success.

McHugh operates as a razor sharp forward in football, scoring four points last Sunday to help secure his club’s place in the county SFC final against Ballyboden.

But he’s a defensive stalwart in hurling and will line out against Kilmacud Crokes in this Sunday’s county SHC semi-final back at Parnell Park.

It could be another long winter for the newly married player but when spring rolls around he expects to be back in blue again with Dublin.

“That’s the plan, that’s the plan for sure, provided I don’t get any more injuries,” said McHugh, who picked up an early injury in Dublin’s All-Ireland semi-final loss to Cork.

“I’ve had a couple of them the last while and if I get another one then that might be the body telling me to pack it in. But at the moment I feel good and I definitely do plan on going again because I love working with the set-up, particularly Niall Ó Ceallacháin.

“He’s the main reason I went in in the first place. So I definitely want to give it another year, considering how the year went for us. So hopefully the body holds up and we’ll go from there.”

Ó Ceallacháin managed the Na Fianna hurlers to All-Ireland success last January before stepping down to focus on his first season as Dublin boss.

Aidan Downes, a selector last season, replaced Ó Ceallacháin and will have designs on another long winter.

Meanwhile, the club’s footballers are just 60 minutes from picking up a first Dublin senior title since 2001.

They too could end up going deep into winter – meaning McHugh could be a busy man again.

Celebrating Na Fianna's win on Sunday. Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO

“It’s been a long year,” he said. “I was only saying it to my wife earlier that I started with the Na Fianna footballers and hurlers in July of 2024 and went the whole way with the hurlers, winning the All-Ireland. Two weeks after that I was in with the Dublin senior hurlers.

“That then went all the way up to the All-Ireland semi-final against Cork. I got a bad injury in that game so I actually missed about seven or eight weeks after that.

“In hindsight, it was nearly the best thing that could have happened because if I wasn’t injured, I would have went straight in two weeks after again, playing club hurling championship.

“So it was a bit of a refresher, and it was nearly good to get it, just an opportunity for a mental break as much as anything and go at it again then. I’m hanging on now and enjoying it.”

McHugh made 20 league and championship appearances in all for the Dublin footballers across seven seasons, winning those four All-Ireland medals, before finishing up in 2021.

The 2014 U21 Player of the Year showed last weekend in the county football semi-final that his big ball skills are as sharp as ever, pinching four important points from play.

“There was a lot of emotion there at the end of the game because I think they’ve knocked us out maybe three or four times in the last five or six years,” said McHugh of Crokes.

“To get that monkey off our back was huge. The thing is, and we’ve kind of realised this from playing the hurling, semi-finals are for winning. So you have to quickly dust yourself down, learn from it and move on. There’s no point beating Crokes in a semi-final if you can’t go on and do it in the final then.”