Ó Sé ready to spring an earlier return

Nothing much is won or lost in early February, but that's not saying there isn't a sudden sense of urgency within Kerry football going into Sunday's league showdown against Dublin.

Indeed it has prompted Tomás Ó Sé to reconsider "easing" himself back into it, having initially intended to sit out Kerry's opening games, then return after the mini-break that falls between rounds two and three.

Now, Dublin in Killarney this Sunday may be impossible - or impractical - to resist.

Ó Sé didn't travel with Kerry to Castlebar last Sunday, and, some might say, lucky for him: Mayo handed Kerry something of a football lesson, not just running out six-point winners, but holding Kerry scoreless for the entire second half, something Ó Sé himself never experienced on the field of play.

Realised soon enough

But he did watch it on TV - and realised soon enough Kerry could probably do with him this Sunday.

At 34, and having made his senior debut back in 1998, Ó Sé had sat down with new manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice late last year, and agreed he'd come back at his own pace, and that when he did the commitment would be as immense as always.

"Well I'm back, alright, anyway," he says. "I've been training away the last couple of weeks, but the plan really was to be easing back into it, maybe sit out these first two games. There is the three-week break after round two, and that was the plan, to really come back full tilt after that.

"That might have changed a little now, I don't know. There may be some part for me to play on Sunday, but we'll wait and see later in the week, maybe."

What is certain is Ó Sé intends giving the 2013 season his best effort, possibly because it may well be his last one. The mind can't afford to think about retirement until the time actually comes, but he realises too the curtain is starting to draw.

Full effort

"All I said was I'd give it the full effort again this year. I'm not getting any younger, that's for sure, so it might well be my last year, it's hard to know.

"But it is going to be a big effort again this year, definitely. I'm going to give it my all."

Fitzmaurice hasn't disguised his relief that Ó Sé did commit for another year, and with that use his vast experience to help ease the transition of the newer players into the senior panel. But then this works both ways, Ó Sé appreciating the fact he is still wanted.