REIGNING FOOTBALLER OF the Year Jack McCaffrey returns to Irish soil next month, but he won’t be pulling back on the blue jersey until 2017.

McCaffrey, who completed four years of a medical degree in UCD, took a break from inter-county football by spending the summer volunteering with GOAL in Africa.

McCaffrey followed Rory O’Carroll by opting out of Jim Gavin’s plans earlier this year as Dublin attempt to defend their All-Ireland title for the first time since 1977.

But the 22-year-old says he won’t rejoin the Dublin squad for this campaign, despite returning home 10 days before Dublin potentially play in an All-Ireland semi-final.

“No, I can’t see myself being involved at all this year,” McCaffrey told the Sunday Independent’s Dermot Crowe.

Explaining his decision to opt for a stint in Africa rather than spending a summer in the States, McCaffrey said: “It was funny, the initial plan was just to – when I’d gone to Jim (Gavin) about taking the season off – I was planning on just going over (to the US) on a J1. I just kinda wanted to be a student.

“So while I was missing going over and doing a J1 and that, when the opportunity presented itself to do this I jumped at it.

‘If I am involved in football again, would I be glad to say the only summer I took off was to go and play football in America? This is a good clean break.”

Read the three-page interview with McCaffrey in today’s Sunday Independent.

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