Moran expects to see McHugh back in the Donegal fold

Mayo skipper Andy Moran is expecting to see Donegal's Mark McHugh back in the inter-county fold before the end of the year.

McHugh left Jim McGuinness's panel recently, but according to Moran, with the pressures of the modern game, it's not surprising to see players dropping away from senior teams.

Empathises
But after working his own way through a poor season following his return from a broken leg and a cruciate ligament injury, Moran empathises with McHugh (23).

"I'd expect to see Mark back by the end of the year. I'd expect to see him back in the Donegal squad," said Moran.

“Form is a scary thing, when you are not playing well – I’m not suggesting for a minute that Mark wasn’t playing well – but when you’re not playing well in a county set-up the pressure that’s there at the minute it’s fairly active.

“The experience I had after the Tyrone game last year when I wasn’t hitting the heights that I wanted to hit myself, it’s a tough place to be.

“And if you don’t feel you can get to them sometimes it might be better to step away.

“We see a lot of problems in life at the minute and if it’s too much for you, maybe stepping away for a month or two might be no harm,” said Moran at the the Connacht championship launch at the Connacht GAA centre yesterday.

McHugh played a key role for Donegal during their trek to the 2012 Sam Maguire, including their All-Ireland final win over Mayo – a game Moran could only watch because of injury.

However, the Donegal attacker had an injury-hampered season last year as osteitis pubis, ear and quad muscle problems hampered him and McGuinness's side fell to Mayo at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage.

'Life is more important'
But the Mayo skipper supports his move away from the game: "It's hard to get back in, but life is more important.

“But I think Mark will be back, I think it’s very encouraging to see Ryan (McHugh’s brother) staying along with the panel. I know a lot of the Donegal lads and they are good lads, they’ll help him out as much as they can.”

Moran returned to training two weeks after last September’s All-Ireland final defeat to Dublin in an effort to rediscover his best form.

Armed with a new diet and a training plan designed by the Mayo backroom team, Moran is happy his disappointing season of 2013 is behind him and is determined to play a leading role for James Horan’s side this year.

“Sometimes you have to start right from the bottom. And I started last October and we built it from there,” he said