MONAGHAN FOOTBALL GREAT Conor McManus is open to prolonging his inter-county career into the 2025 season.

Speculation over the attacker’s playing future grew in the wake of this year’s  championship, but he has committed to a training programme for ‘five or six weeks’ as Monaghan get set to begin a new chapter after Gabriel Bannigan has taken over as manager.

McManus told Off The Ball’s The Football Pod, in an interview which will be broadcast in full tomorrow, that if he emerges unscathed from that programme and feels he can get through the requirements of an inter-county campaign, he is line to remain as part of the Monaghan squad.

𝐄𝐗𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐄: 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐫 𝐌𝐜𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓

Conor McManus revealed on tomorrow's The Football Pod Club his plans for the coming weeks.
@AIB_GAA | #TheToughest pic.twitter.com/kbmpNzznqq

— Off The Ball (@offtheball) November 26, 2024

“I still don’t really know. I  sort of committed to doing a bit of rehab and a bit of strength work over the next five to six weeks, see how that goes.

“If I suppose it puts me in a position where I feel I can get through another year I will and if it doesn’t, I’ll probably leave it at that.

“So I suppose I’ll have to make that decision sooner rather than later. I don’t want to drag it on any longer than I need to but I’ll give it a chance. I didn’t really do much until the club season was over there, obviously we lost the county final, so I’ll sort of get into a block of that now for five or six weeks.”

The Clontibret man, who turns 37 this week, made his Monaghan senior debut in 2007.

He is long established as one of the best forwards in the game, helping Monaghan land Ulster senior titles in 2013 and 2015, while he won All-Stars in 2013, 2015, and 2018.

Monaghan exited this year’s All-Ireland championship at the preliminary quarter-final stage with a defeat to Galway.