John Heslin trained with the Westmeath footballers last weekend as they continued preparations for Sunday’s Leinster SFC final against Dublin.
The return of the former Westmeath star forward, who announced his intercounty retirement in January 2025, has caused a significant stir both within the county and further afield.
The 33-year-old has been working as an analyst with GAA+ during the championship and was on duty in that role at O’Connor Park only two weeks ago when Westmeath beat Kildare to progress to the Leinster decider.
Heslin has continued to play with St Loman’s and has been in free-scoring form for the Mullingar outfit in recent weeks. Nonetheless, the recall of Westmeath’s all-time leading scorer to the county set-up has come as a seismic shock.
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Mark McHugh’s Westmeath are due to train again on Tuesday night and it remains to be seen if Heslin is to be included in the match-day squad for Sunday’s Croke Park fixture.
Westmeath are currently without several key players to injury – including forwards Luke Loughlin and Jonathan Lynam – so it is probable that McHugh felt there was more to gain than lose by inviting Heslin to train with the squad over the weekend.
Westmeath have only won a single Leinster senior football title in their history, in 2004.
